How to run php programs on local computer - SOLVED

[Brian Cluff]

First off, thank you for always reporting back when you issue is 
resolved, it really does help the rest of us know if we are giving good 
advice and whoever comes by later it gives them instructions on what to 
do that they know should work.
(Sometimes it might even be yourself you help... inside joke for those 
that know me)

> $ dpkg-query -W | grep php

I like to use "dpkg -l", it's shorter to type and gives you a bit more 
info.  dpkg-qwery is awesome if you want to get custom formatted lists 
out of dpkg.

One of my favorites is:
dpkg-query -W -f '${Package} ${Status}\n'
which I use all the time to get lists of uninstalled packages that 
haven't had their configs purged yet.

> Matt replied:
>> Run your distro's equivalent of "rpm -qa | grep php"?
>> That only works for Redhat-derived things, and won't work for Mint.

The debian/ubuntu equivelent is
apt-cache search php command line
just replace  "php command line" with whatever word(s) that you want to 
search for.

In the above case it will spit out a few lines, the one you will be 
interest in is:
php5-cli - command-line interpreter for the php5 scripting language

Like I said, unless you are doing command line things, it isn't a single 
machine replacement for a webserver + PHP.

Brian Cluff