If you missed that argument when initially installing php5 and want to add it after the fact, this is all you need:
sudo apt-get install php5-readline
To use these functions you must compile the CGI or CLI version of PHP with readline support. You need to configure PHP --with-readline[=DIR]. If you want to use the libedit readline replacement, configure PHP --with-libedit[=DIR].
On Windows this extension is available by default as of PHP 7.1.0.
If you missed that argument when initially installing php5 and want to add it after the fact, this is all you need:
sudo apt-get install php5-readline
Use dotdeb. It's like 1 minute work.
Follow https://www.dotdeb.org/instructions/
Do only points 1,3,4 (omit 2)
and then
sudo apt-get install php5-readline