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# PHP

From ArchWiki

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

## Installation

Install the php package.

Due to application software that cannot use the latest PHP version, you may install php-legacy alongside. That package provides the oldest still actively supported PHP branch and must be configured within the applications that require it.

You can find older and pinned versions of PHP in the AUR, including php56AUR, php74AUR, php80AUR, php81AUR, php82AUR and php83AUR. Those are binary builds using the openSUSE Build Service.

## Running

While PHP can be run standalone, it is typically used with web servers. That requires installing additional packages and editing configuration files. For common setups, see the following:

- Apache HTTP Server#PHP
- nginx#PHP implementation
- lighttpd#PHP
- Hiawatha#CGI

To run PHP scripts as plain CGI, you need the php-cgi package.

## Configuration

The main PHP configuration file is well-documented and located at `/etc/php/php.ini`.

- It is recommended to set your timezone (list of timezones) in `/etc/php/php.ini` like so:

    date.timezone = Europe/Berlin

- If you want to display errors to debug your PHP code, change `display_errors` to `On` in `/etc/php/php.ini`:

    display_errors = On

- The open_basedir directive limits the paths that can be accessed by PHP, thus increasing security at the expense of potentially interfering with normal program execution. Starting with PHP 7.0, it is no longer set by default to more closely match upstream so users who wish to use it must configure it manually. All symbolic links are resolved, so it is not possible to avoid this restriction with a symlink. The default Arch packages for certain webapps like `nextcloud` & `phpmyadmin` installs the webapps under `/usr/share/webapps` and creates a symlink pointing to the actual configuration files for those webapps under `/etc/webapps`. So, if you are setting up `open_basedir`, make sure both those folders listed are in the `open_basedir`. This will obviously be different for webapps installed in other locations. Example:

    open_basedir = /srv/http/:/var/www/:/home/:/tmp/:/var/tmp/:/var/cache/:/usr/share/pear/:/usr/share/webapps/:/etc/webapps/

## Extensions

A number of commonly used PHP extensions can also be found in the official repositories:

    $ pacman -Ss php-

Tip Instead of editing `/etc/php/php.ini`, an extension may be enabled/configured in the `/etc/php/conf.d` directory instead (e.g. `/etc/php/conf.d/imagick.ini`)

Existing extensions are located in `/usr/lib/php/modules` directory.

For example, to enable `ext-iconv` extension create file `/etc/php/conf.d/extensions.ini` with line:

    extension=iconv

Extensions for current and older versions of PHP are also available in the AUR under prefixes like php- and php56-, e.g. php-imagick, php-redis, php56-mcryptAUR.

### gd

For php-gd uncomment the line in `/etc/php/php.ini`:

    extension=gd

### Imagemagick

Install the imagemagick package and install one of the listed PHP extension library.

Install php-imagick, it will create the file `/etc/php/conf.d/imagick.ini` to configure the extension.

If you want imagemagick to have SVG support, e.g. for nextcloud, then install librsvg as a dependency.

#### PECL

Make sure the php-pearAUR package has been installed:

    # pecl install imagick

Create a `/etc/php/conf.d/imagick.ini` and enable the extension:

    /etc/php/conf.d/imagick.ini

    extension=imagick

### Multithreading

If you wish to have POSIX multi-threading you will need the parallel extension. To install the extension using `pecl` you are required to use a compiled version of PHP with the thread safety support flag `--enable-maintainer-zts`. Currently the most clean way to do this would be to rebuild the original package with the flag. Instruction can be found on the PHP pthreads extension page.

### PCNTL

PCNTL allows you to create process directly into the server side machine. While this may seen as something you would want, it also gives PHP the power to mess things up really badly. So it is a PHP extension that cannot be loaded like other more convenient extension. This is because of the great power it gives to PHP. To enable it PCNTL has to be compiled into PHP.

The php package on Arch Linux is currently built with "--enable-pcntl", so that it should be available by default.

### MySQL/MariaDB

Install and configure MySQL/MariaDB as described in MariaDB.

Uncomment the following lines in `/etc/php/php.ini`:

    extension=pdo_mysql
    extension=mysqli

Note `extension=mysql` was removed in PHP 7.0.

You can add minor privileged MySQL users for your web scripts. You might also want to edit `/etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf` and add in mysqld section `skip-networking` line so the MySQL server is only accessible by the localhost, as per MariaDB#Enable access locally only via Unix sockets. You have to restart MySQL for changes to take effect.

### Redis

Install and configure Redis, then install php-redis.

Uncomment the line of the package, e.g. `/etc/php/conf.d/redis.ini`. Also ensure that the igbinary extension is enabled (also uncommented) in `/etc/php/conf.d/igbinary.ini`

### PostgreSQL

Install and configure PostgreSQL, then install the php-pgsql package and uncomment the following lines in `/etc/php/php.ini`:

    extension=pdo_pgsql
    extension=pgsql

### Sqlite

Install and configure SQLite, then install the php-sqlite package and uncomment the following lines in `/etc/php/php.ini`:

    extension=pdo_sqlite
    extension=sqlite3

### XDebug

XDebug allows you to easily debug (using modified var_dump function), profile, or trace PHP code.

Install xdebug and uncomment the following line in `/etc/php/conf.d/xdebug.ini`:

    zend_extension=xdebug.so

You can configure what XDebug does by adding a xdebug.mode line to the same file. By default, it is set to `xdebug.mode=develop`.

Note To always attempt to start a remote debugging session and connect to a debugging client it is also necessary to set `xdebug.remote_autostart=on`. For Xdebug 3 the default port is 9003, to change it set `xdebug.remote_port=9000`

### Snuffleupagus

Install php-snuffleupagus, uncomment the two lines in `/etc/php/conf.d/snuffleupagus.ini`, and put the path to the `snuffleupagus.rules` file in the second line:

    extension=snuffleupagus.so
    sp.configuration_file=/etc/php/conf.d/snuffleupagus.rules

## Caching

There are two kinds of caching in PHP: opcode/bytecode caching and userland/user data caching. Both allow for substantial gains in applications speed, and therefore should be enabled wherever possible.

- Zend OPCache provides only opcode caching.
- APCu provides only userland caching.

### OPcache

OPcache comes bundled with the standard PHP distribution and is enabled by default since version 8.5 (November 2025). A list of its options and suggested settings can be found in its official entry on the PHP website.

Warning If you choose to apply the suggested settings its manual offers, be sure to read carefully the first comment below those instructions as well. In some configurations those settings result in errors such as `zend_mm_heap corrupted` being produced.

### APCu

APCu can be installed with the php-apcu package. You can then enable it by uncommenting the following line in `/etc/php/conf.d/apcu.ini`, or adding it to your PHP configuration file:

    extension=apcu

This article or section is out of date.

Reason: The linked INSTALL file was removed and instead points to the online documentation (Discuss in Talk:PHP)

Its author recommends a few suggested settings, among which:

- `apc.enabled=1` and `apc.shm_size=32M` are not really required as they represent the default values;
- `apc.ttl=7200` on the other hand seems rather beneficial;
- finally, `apc.enable_cli=1`, which although not recommended by the manual may be required by some software such as ownCloud.

Tip You can add those settings either to APCu's own `/etc/php/conf.d/apcu.ini` or directly to your PHP configuration file. Just make sure not to enable the extension twice as it will result in errors being diplayed in the system logs.

## Development tools

- Visual Studio Code — Code Editor for programming PHP and other languages.

  https://code.visualstudio.com/ || code

- Aptana Studio — IDE for programming in PHP and web development. Does not have a PHP debugger.

  http://www.aptana.com/products/studio3.html || aptana-studioAUR

- Eclipse PDT — The PHP variant of Eclipse.

  https://www.eclipse.org/pdt/ || eclipse-php-binAUR

- Komodo — IDE with good integration for PHP+HTML+JavaScript.

  http://komodoide.com/ || komodo-ideAUR, editor only: komodo-editAUR

- Netbeans — IDE for many languages including PHP. Includes features like debugging, refactoring, code templating, autocomplete, XML features, and web design and development functionalities.

  https://netbeans.org/ || netbeans

- JetBrains PhpStorm — Commercial, cross-platform IDE for PHP built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA platform. You can get a free license for education from Jetbrains.[1].

  https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/ || phpstormAUR, 30-day trial: phpstorm-eapAUR

## Commandline tools

### Composer

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. It can be installed with the composer package.

#### Allow user-wide installations

To allow global package installations for the current user (e.g. `$ composer global require "package/name"`), you may want to specify a default location by using an environment variable:

    PATH="$HOME/.config/composer/vendor/bin:$PATH"

#### Usage with php-legacy

Some applications may require php-legacy, but by default, `composer` runs with the latest version of PHP. Thus, in order to use the legacy version instead, one must replace `composer` with `php-legacy /usr/bin/composer` in their scripts, makefiles and other applicable locations. An example of this is when building Nextcloud apps.

### Others

- Box — An application for building and managing Phars.

  https://box-project.github.io/box2/ || php-boxAUR

- PHP Depend — A software metrics tool for PHP.

  https://pdepend.org/ || pdependAUR

- PHP Coding Standards Fixer — A PSR-1 and PSR-2 Coding Standards fixer for your code.

  https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/PHP-CS-Fixer || php-cs-fixerAUR

- PHP CodeSniffer — Tokenizes PHP, JavaScript and CSS files and detects violations of a defined set of coding standards.

  https://pear.php.net/package/PHP_CodeSniffer/ || php-codesnifferAUR

- phpcov — A command-line frontend for the PHP_CodeCoverage library.

  https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpcov || phpcovAUR

- phpDox — A documentation generator for PHP projects, including, but is not limited to, API documentation.

  http://phpdox.de/ || phpdoxAUR

- PHPLoc — A tool for quickly measuring the size of a PHP project.

  https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phploc/ || phplocAUR

- PhpMetrics — Provides various metrics about PHP projects.

  https://www.phpmetrics.org/ || phpmetricsAUR

- PHPUnit — A programmer-oriented testing framework for PHP.

  https://phpunit.de || phpunitAUR

- Producer — A command-line quality-assurance tool to validate, and then release, your PHP library package.

  http://getproducer.org/ || producerAUR

## Troubleshooting

### PHP Fatal error: Class 'ZipArchive' not found

Ensure the zip extension is enabled.

    /etc/php/php.ini

    extension=zip

### /etc/php/php.ini not parsed

If your `php.ini` is not parsed, the ini file is named after the sapi it is using. For instance, if you are using uwsgi, the file would be called `/etc/php/php-uwsgi.ini`. If you are using cli, it is `/etc/php/php-cli.ini`.

### PHP Warning: PHP Startup: <module>: Unable to initialize module

When running `php`, this error indicates that the aforementioned module is out of date. This will rarely happen in Arch Linux, since maintainers make sure core PHP and all modules be only available in compatible versions.

This might happen in conjunction with a module compiled from the AUR. You usually could confirm this by looking at the dates of the files `/usr/lib/php/modules/`.

To fix, find a compatible update for your module, probably by looking up the AUR using its common name.

If it applies, flag the outdated AUR package as outdated.

### Permission denied issues when using php-fpm

There is a default AppArmor php-fpm profile which prohibits php-fpm from accessing files outside system paths. You may need to manually allow access to your custom web path by creating `/etc/apparmor.d/local/php-fpm`:

    /etc/apparmor.d/local/php-fpm

    /path/to/my/web/path/** rw,

## See also

- Arch Linux PHP legacy package announcement

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