Drush PHP syntax error when running I am following the instructions to install Drush that are listed on this page: https://github.com/drush-ops/drush/blob/master/docs/install.md

I seem to be getting a syntax error within the code:

[user@localhost ~]$ wget https://github.com/drush-ops/drush/releases/download/8.0.0-rc4/drush.phar
--2015-11-16 16:23:02--  https://github.com/drush-ops/drush/releases/download/8.0.0-rc4/drush.phar
Resolving github.com (github.com)... 192.30.252.131
Connecting to github.com (github.com)|192.30.252.131|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
2015-11-16 16:23:05 (1.47 MB/s) - drush.phar saved [3496991/3496991]

[user@localhost ~]$ php drush.phar core-status

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[' in phar:///home/user/drush.phar/includes/output.inc on line 188


I am not seeing this error on Google. Any idea how to fix it?
You're using Drush 8, which requires a minimum PHP version of 5.4.5 (http://docs.drush.org/en/master/install/).

Your current version (5.3) doesn't understand short array syntax, hence the error you're seeing.

To fix, either upgrade PHP, or switch to an older branch of Drush.