1) The worst here, is that the post install script unconditionally enables php5 or php7. This breaks installations where the Apache MPM is *not* prefork. So before adding this module, a check should be performed which MPM is used. Something along the lines a2enmod -q php${php_version} || [ -z "$(apachectl -V | grep -i prefork)" ] || a2enmod php${php_version} should be able to determine that the prefork MPM is used and the module should be installed. 2) Drop the dependency on php_mod_any >= 5.5. Since only apache2-mod_php5 and apache2-mod_php7 provide this, one of these will be installed even if it is not needed. The dependency on php-session is sufficient to guarantee that a PHP interpreter is installed.