cURL is a popular tool for making HTTP requests from the command line. It is also available as a library for programming languages, including PHP.
The cURL extension in PHP allows you to make HTTP requests directly from your PHP scripts, making it an essential tool for developers.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install the cURL extension for PHP 7 on different operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, you need to make sure that you have PHP 7 installed on your machine.
You can check the version of PHP installed on your machine by running the following command in the terminal:
php -v
If you do not have PHP 7 installed, you can download it from the official website of PHP (https://windows.php.net/download/).
Installing cURL Extension on Windows
On Windows, the cURL extension is not enabled by default.
To install the cURL extension, you need to follow these steps:
- Download the latest version of the cURL extension for PHP 7 from the official website of cURL (https://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/releases/curl/).
- Extract the downloaded file to a directory of your choice.
- Open the Command Prompt with administrative privileges and navigate to the directory where you have extracted the cURL extension.
- Run the following command to install the cURL extension:
php.exe -d extension_dir=C:\php\ext -d extension=php_curl.dll -n -q -d max_execution_time=0 -d memory_limit=-1 -f pecl\install-pecl-curl.php install
- Once the installation is complete, you need to add the following line to your PHP configuration file (php.ini) to enable the cURL extension:
extension=php_curl.dll
- Restart your web server to apply the changes.
- Verify that the cURL extension is installed by running the following command:
php -m | findstr curl
If the cURL extension is installed, you will see the following output:
curl
Installing cURL Extension on Linux
On Linux, the cURL extension is usually installed by default.
However, if it is not installed, you can install it by following these steps:
- Open the terminal and run the following command to install the cURL extension:
sudo apt-get install php7.0-curl
- Once the installation is complete, you need to restart your web server to apply the changes.
- Verify that the cURL extension is installed by running the following command:
php -m | grep curl
If the cURL extension is installed, you will see the following output:
curl
Installing cURL Extension on macOS
On macOS, the cURL extension is usually installed by default. However, if it is not installed, you can install it by following these steps:
- Open the terminal and run the following command to install the cURL extension:
brew install php70-curl
- Once the installation is complete, you need to add the following line to your PHP configuration file (php.ini) to enable the cURL extension:
extension=curl.so
- Restart your web server to apply the changes.
- Verify that the cURL extension is installed by running the following command:
php -m | grep curl
If the cURL extension is installed, you will see the following output:
curl
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install the cURL extension for PHP 7 on different operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.
The cURL extension is a powerful tool that allows you to make HTTP requests directly from your PHP scripts, making it an essential tool for developers.
With the cURL extension, you can easily perform tasks such as sending HTTP requests, retrieving data from APIs, and more.
