Some php5 packages (system PHP) are not removed during dist-upgrade from ubuntu 14 to 16

Symptoms

• System was dist-upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04

• Some php5 packages (system PHP) are not removed during dist-upgrade:

  # dpkg -l | grep " php5"
  rc  php5-cgi                          5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (CGI binary)
  rc  php5-cli                          5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        command-line interpreter for the php5 scripting language
  ii  php5-common                      5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        Common files for packages built from th  php5 source
  ii  php5-curl                        5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        CURL module for php5
  rc  php5-fpm                          5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (FPM-CGI binary)
  ii  php5-gd                          5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        GD module for php5
  ii  php5-imap                        5.4.6-0ubuntu5                        amd64        IMAP module for php5
  rc  php5-ioncube-loader              5.0.18-ubuntu14.04.17031415            amd64        PHP ionCube Loader
  ii  php5-json                        1.3.2-2build1                          amd64        JSON module for php5
  ii  php5-mysql                        5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        MySQL module for php5
  rc  php5-readline                    5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        Readline module for php5
  ii  php5-sqlite                      5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        SQLite module for php5
  ii  php5-xsl                          5.5.9+dfsg-1ubuntu4.25                amd64        XSL module for php5

• Some psa-php* packages also remains on the server:

  # dpkg -l 'psa-php*'
  ii psa-php-config 1.7.0-ubuntu amd64 Plesk Onyx v1.7.0 configurator fo
  rc psa-php5-confi 1.7.0-ubuntu amd64 Plesk Onyx v1.7.0 configurator fo
  rc psa-phpfpm-con 1.0.0-ubuntu amd64 Plesk Onyx v1.0.0 configurator fo
  ii psa-phpmyadmin 4.7.8-ubuntu all MySQL web administration tool ada

• On clean Ubuntu 16.04, php5 packages are not present:

  # dpkg -l | grep " php5"
  ii psa-php-configurator 1.7.0-ubuntu16.04.build1708180212.17 amd64 Plesk Onyx v1.7.0 configurator for php5 

Cause

This is bug with id PPPM-9097 which will be fixed in future Plesk updates.

Resolution

Such packages can be ignored as they are not harmful.

Warning: The next method may remove more packages as will use autoremove feature from apt-get.

Anyway, in case the will to cleanup the system from old packages, those can be removed with:

1. Login to the server over SSH

2. Remove those old packages with:

   # apt-mark auto php5-common php5-curl php5-gd php5-imap php5-json php5-mysql php5-sqlite php5-xsl
   apt-get autoremove

3. In case the psa-php* packages are duplicated (as shown in symptoms), remove them:

   Note: Not always these packages are duplicated

   # apt-get remove --purge psa-php5-configurator psa-phpfpm-configurator