Running Legacy Moodle or Totara PHPUnit Tests on PHP 7.4

Use this when a legacy Totara/Moodle checkout needs PHPUnit under PHP 7.4, but the host default php binary is a newer version and Totara’s PHPUnit bootstrap keeps resolving nested php calls to the wrong interpreter.

Scope

This applies when all of the following are true:

• the application requires PHP 7.4 for test tooling

/usr/bin/php points to a newer version

Why the normal PATH trick fails

Totara’s PHPUnit wrapper resets PATH using dirname(PHP_BINARY). If you start it with /usr/bin/php7.4, it prepends /usr/bin again, and nested php calls still resolve to /usr/bin/php instead of PHP 7.4.

Recommended approach

1. Create a dedicated launcher directory with a copied php binary for PHP 7.4.
2. Skip Totara’s Composer bootstrap if necessary and install PHPUnit dependencies manually with a Composer version that still supports the locked package set.
3. Use Totara’s lower-level server/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php entrypoint directly, not test/phpunit/phpunit.php init, if the wrapper still leaks to the system PHP.

Example

Assumptions:

• PHP 7.4 binary: /usr/bin/php7.4
• project root: /path/to/project/totara

Create the launcher:

mkdir -p /tmp/php74bin
cp /usr/bin/php7.4 /tmp/php74bin/php
/tmp/php74bin/php -r 'echo PHP_BINARY, PHP_EOL;'

Expected output:

/tmp/php74bin/php

If the Totara checkout expects totara/config.php, provide the instance bridge temporarily:

ln -sf /path/to/instance/config.php /path/to/project/totara/config.php

Prepare Composer manually when Totara’s init step cannot:

cd /path/to/project/totara
curl -L https://getcomposer.org/download/2.6.6/composer.phar -o composer.phar
/tmp/php74bin/php composer.phar --version
/tmp/php74bin/php composer.phar -d test/phpunit update phpunit/phpunit brianium/paratest -W

Provide a PHPUnit config if the instance config does not define phpunit_* settings:

cat > /tmp/project-phpunit-config.php <<'PHP'
<?php
$CFG = new stdClass();
$CFG->dataroot = '/tmp/project_phpunit_data';
$CFG->dbtype = 'pgsql';
$CFG->dblibrary = 'native';
$CFG->dbhost = 'localhost';
$CFG->dbname = 'project_db';
$CFG->dbuser = 'dbuser';
$CFG->dbpass = 'dbpass';
$CFG->prefix = 'phpu_';
$CFG->dboptions = [
    'dbpersist' => false,
    'dbsocket' => false,
    'dbport' => '',
];
PHP
ln -sf /tmp/project-phpunit-config.php /path/to/project/totara/test/phpunit/config.php

Initialize the isolated PHPUnit site directly:

cd /path/to/project/totara
/tmp/php74bin/php -d max_input_vars=5000 server/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --install
/tmp/php74bin/php -d max_input_vars=5000 server/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --buildconfig

Run a targeted test:

cd /path/to/project/totara
/tmp/php74bin/php -d max_input_vars=5000 server/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --run --filter local_multitenant_delete_capability_testcase server/local/multitenant/tests/delete_capability_test.php

Cleanup:

rm -f /path/to/project/totara/config.php
rm -f /path/to/project/totara/test/phpunit/config.php

Notes

• Prefer a project-local composer.phar instead of changing the system Composer.
• If Composer still blocks old locked packages, either use an older Composer release or repair the PHPUnit lockfile under PHP 7.4.
• Do not use a shell wrapper script for php; in this environment PHP_BINARY still resolved to the original binary path. A copied PHP 7.4 binary worked.
• The test/phpunit/phpunit.php init wrapper may still leak to the host default php. If that happens, use server/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php directly.