How to install the php-mcrypt module on a Plesk server

Note: mcrypt extension was recently updated and now supports PHP 7.2 and newer. Vote for this feature suggestion for mcrypt support out of the box.

Note: the same procedure can be applied for PHP 7.3 and 7.4

1. Connect to the server via SSH

2. Install the required dependencies:

   • On RHEL, CentOS and CloudLinux:

     # yum install -y epel-release

     # yum install --enablerepo=epel -y plesk-php72-devel gcc libmcrypt-devel make

   • On Debian and Ubuntu:

     # apt install -y plesk-php72-dev gcc libmcrypt-dev make libc6-dev

3. Update pecl.php.net protocols:

   # /opt/plesk/php/7.2/bin/pecl channel-update pecl.php.net

4. Build the mcrypt extension:

   # /opt/plesk/php/7.2/bin/pecl install mcrypt-1.0.1

   Note: for PHP 7.3 use mcrypt-1.0.2, and mcrypt-1.0.4 for PHP 7.4
   for example: /opt/plesk/php/7.4/bin/pecl install mcrypt

5. Enable the extension in PHP configuration:

   # echo 'extension=mcrypt.so' > /opt/plesk/php/7.2/etc/php.d/mcrypt.ini

6. Refresh information about installed PHP modules

   # plesk bin php_handler --reread

7. To apply changes reload web server Apache (or nginx if Apache is not used) and PHP-FPM service:
   On Ubuntu, Debian:

   # service apache2 reload
   # service plesk-php72-fpm reload

   On CentOS:

   # service httpd reload
   # service plesk-php72-fpm reload

8. (optional) to make mcrypt manageable via Tools & Settings > PHP Settings > PHP 7.2 > Extensions tab, open php.ini tab under the same path and add extension=mcrypt.so under Dynamic Extensions section. Click OK.

1. Connect to a Plesk server via SSH

2. Install the module:

   • On RHEL-based distributions (RHEL, CentOS, CloudLinux):

     # yum install -y epel-release
     # yum install -y php-mcrypt

   • on Debian-based distributions (Debian, Ubuntu):

     # apt-get install php5-mcrypt -y || apt-get install mcrypt php7.0-mcrypt -y || apt-get install php-mcrypt -y

3. Refresh information about installed PHP modules

   # plesk bin php_handler --reread

4. Reload PHP-FPM and Apache  (or nginx if Apache is not used) to make the module available for websites:

   # systemctl reload php-fpm php7.0-fpm apache2 httpd

Note: In case of below the error

error: Autoconf version 2.68 or higher is required
/usr/bin/m4 failed with exit status: 63

first following steps should be applied to replace Autconf version 2.63 with Autoconf version 2.68 provided by Plesk:

# mv /usr/bin/autoconf{,.bkps}
# ln -s /usr/bin/autoconf268 /usr/bin/autoconf
# mv /usr/bin/autom4te{,.bkps}
# ln -s /usr/bin/autom4te268 /usr/bin/autom4te