How do you point to non-default php version without sudo in terminal

Question

Problem: When I ssh to my web server and run anything with "php", it runs an old php 5.2 for some reason. The link /usr/bin/php points to the wrong version. I cannot change this symlink.

What I tried: From folder ~/test I'd like to install something, but it requires php 5.6. So I created a symlink in folder ~/tes which points to php5.6:

ln -s /usr/bin/php56 php

To make sure the system checks the current directory for php, I've changed PATH variable and added current directory first:

PATH=/home/test:$PATH

No luck though.

Answer 1

You have provided the wrong directory in PATH declaration.

You have set the link in ~/test/ directory but in PATH declaration you have used /home/test.

Assuming you username is foobar, you need:

export PATH=/home/foobar/test:"$PATH"

Or just:

export PATH=~/test:"$PATH"

Or:

export PATH="$HOME"/test:"$PATH"

export is to make the changed PATH available to all child processes.