Undefined function json_decode() When attempting to update a Drupal 7 site through the UI or Drush, I get Error: Call to undefined function json_decode() in home/xxxxx/drush/includes/output.inc, line 403 , code: 255)

The server is running PHP 7.3 with json enabled - I've verified this with phpinfo(). I'm at a loss here, and even if I apply updates by ftp, I still can't run database updates. Shared hosting without root access.


PHP 7.3.13
Drush 5.9
Drupal 7.x
So I finally found the culprit. A php symlink in the bin directory linking to an old version of php. I guess even though drush showed it was using version 7.3, those scripts used that symlink and was pulling in an older php version. Error is gone and I can finally update through drush.