All the cool new features for PHP are in the latest releases. You can't get to those easily from package managers. It takes package managers a while to update to the latest versions. If you want to get the latest version faster you'll need to build your own copy to get the latest and greatest and to help the open source community debug.
Here are some notes on how to get this done. (The instructions below assume basic linux terminal competency)
Installing Apache from source
Pre-requisites: Make : apt-get install make
APR: apt-get install libapr1-dev libaprutil1-dev. Apr is needed for the error checking for APR... no configure: error: APR not found. Please read the documentation.
Installation
Download the source files: wget http://www.bizdirusa.com/mirrors/apache//httpd/httpd-2.4.9.tar.gz Extract source files : tar -zxvf httpd-2.4.9.tar.gz Configure the install: ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-so --enable-cgi --enable-info --enable-rewrite --enable-spelling --enable-usertrack --enable-deflate --enable-ssl --enable-mime-magic Make make Make install make install Start Apache. Navigate to /usr/local/apache/bin and run ./apachectl start You should now have a functioning Apache server
Key commands from configuration script --prefix=/usr/local/apache: This is where apache will be installed
--enable-so: This tells Apache to build so modules modules.
Tip You can alias the apachectl command so you can start it from anywhere.
Navigate to your home directory : cd ~ . Edit the .bashaliases file: vi .bashaliases
Make the alias alias apache="/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl"
Depending on your environment you may need to alias the sudo command as well so it works with your newly created alias for Apache. Add this line before step 3: alias su5. do="sudo "
Logout of your terminal and log back in, you can now access apache via apache
Installing PHP from source
Pre-requisites: libxml : apt-get install libxml2-dev
Installation
Download the source files: wget http://downloads.php.net/tyrael/php-5.6.0beta3.tar.gz Extract source files : tar -zxvf php-5.6.0beta3.tar.gz Configure the install: ./configure --with-pear=/usr/share/php --with-bz2 --with-curl --with-gd --enable-calendar --enable-mbstring --enable-bcmath --enable-sockets --with-regex=php --with-zlib --with-regex=php --with-zlib --with-mysql --with-mysqli --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs Make make Make install make install
Key commands --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs: This enables PHP to create libphp5.so. This mod is required so that Apache can rung PHP files.
Congfiguration with Apache
Next PHP needs to be configured with Apache.
Navigate to /usr/local/apache/conf (or wherever your local Apache install is)
Open httpd.conf with your preferred editor. For example vi httpd.conf or gedit httpd.conf
Set the Directory Index to index.php index.html This makes index.php the default file loaded, then if index.php is missing index.html is loaded
Add AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Ensure the libphp5.so module is loaded: LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so
Set the Handler for PHP files:
Restart Apache `</FilesMatch>`