How to install PHP mbstring on CentOS 6.2

Question

How do I install mbstring with PHP on CentOS 6.2

I've tried:

$ sudo yum install php-mbstring

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.net.cen.ct.gov
 * extras: centos.aol.com
 * updates: mirrors.seas.harvard.edu
Setting up Install Process
No package php-mbstring available.
Error: Nothing to do

But no packages were found?

Answer 1

As yum install php-mbstring then httpd -k restart didn't do it for me, I think these options should be compiled, as documented here:

Now, configure and build PHP. This is where you customize PHP with various options, like which extensions will be enabled. Run ./configure --help for a list of available options. In our example we'll do a simple configure with Apache 2 and MySQL support.

If you built Apache from source, as described above, the below example will match your path for apxs, but if you installed Apache some other way, you'll need to adjust the path to apxs accordingly. Note that some distros may rename apxs to apxs2.

cd ../php-NN
./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs --with-mysql --enable-mbstring
make
make install

If you decide to change your configure options after installation, you'll need to re-run the configure, make, and make install steps. You only need to restart apache for the new module to take effect. A recompile of Apache is not needed.

Note that unless told otherwise, 'make install' will also install PEAR, various PHP tools such as phpize, install the PHP CLI, and more.

Though this page says it's optional:

--enable-mbstring Allows multibyte character string support. This is optional, as slower custom code will be used if not available.

Answer 2

1. Find out php version - php -v
2. Search for php extensions available - yum search php-
3. Install using - yum install ea-php56-php-mbstring.x86_64
4. Then httpd -k restart

Package name - ea-php-php-mbstring.x86_64

Answer 3

do the following:

sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo

under the section updates, comment out the mirrorlist line (put a # in front of the line), then on a new line write:

baseurl=http://centos.intergenia.de/$releasever/updates/$basearch/

now try:

yum install php-mbstring

(afterwards you'll probably want to uncomment the mirrorlist and comment out the baseurl)

Answer 4

If you have cPanel hosting you can use Easy Apache to do this through shell. These are the steps.

1. Type the Easy Apache PathType the path for Easy Apache
   

   root@vps#### [~]# /scripts/easyapache

2. Do not say yes to the "cPanel update available".
3. Continue through the screens with defaults till you get to the "Exhaustive options list".
4. Page down till you see the Mbstring extension listed and select it.
5. Continue through the Steps and Save the Apache PHP build.

Apache and PHP will now rebuild to include the mbstring extension. Wait for the process to finish ~10 to 30 minutes. Once the process is finished you should see the Mbstring extension in the phpinfo now.

For more detailed steps see the article Installing the mbstring extension with Easy Apache

Answer 5

If none of the above help you out, and you have the option, try obtaining one of the rpm files eg:

wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/6/remi/x86_64/php-mbstring-5.4.45-2.el6.remi.x86_64.rpm

then using rpm, install it ignoring the depenecies like so:

rpm -i --nodeps php-mbstring-5.4.45-2.el6.remi.x86_64.rpm

Hope that helps out.