Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages when trying to install PHP [duplicate]

Question

I am new to using Ubuntu OS, I am trying to install PHP so that I can use the interpreter in for PHPStorm.

The commands I have used: sudo apt-get update sudo apt install php

then I get the following error

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 php : Depends: php8.1 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Wondering if anyone can help?

sudo apt update:

Hit:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [114 kB]      
Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu focal InRelease               
Get:4 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [114 kB]     
Hit:5 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                  
Get:6 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [108 kB]
Hit:7 https://deb.nodesource.com/node_16.x focal InRelease
Get:8 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [40.8 kB]
Get:9 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [66.6 kB]
Get:10 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [2,464 B]
Get:11 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [278 kB]
Get:12 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [390 kB]
Get:13 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [944 B]
Get:14 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [7,980 B]
Get:15 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [30.8 kB]
Fetched 1,154 kB in 1s (1,216 kB/s)                                          
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
3 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

Answer 1

After installing the add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php PPA and updating the repositories (sudo apt update), I was not able to install PHP 8.1 on Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 php8.1 : Depends: libapache2-mod-php8.1 but it is not going to be installed or
                   php8.1-fpm but it is not going to be installed or
                   php8.1-cgi but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I finally succeeded with :

1. sudo apt remove php
   but got
   The following packages have unmet dependencies: libapache2-mod-php8.1 : Depends: php8.1-cli but it is not going to be installed Depends: libpcre2-8-0 (>= 10.38) but 10.34-7 is to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
2. So I installed the dependancy with sudo apt install libpcre2-8-0
3. And finally sudo apt install php8.1

The result is

$ php -v
PHP 8.1.7 (cli) (built: Jun 10 2022 12:22:48) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.1.7, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.1.7, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Answer 2

I used >sudo apt-get install aptitude< Then

sudo aptitude -f< Aptitude to the rescue