|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: PHP Binaries |
| 3 | +order: 600 |
| 4 | +--- |
| 5 | +# Static PHP |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +At the heart of NativePHP are the platform-specific, single-file PHP binaries, which are portable, statically-compiled |
| 8 | +versions of PHP. |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +These allow us to ship PHP to a user's device without forcing them to compile from source or manage a sprawling set of |
| 11 | +dynamic libraries and configuration files. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +It also means that your applications can each use an isolated version of PHP without depending on or interfering with |
| 14 | +the version of PHP the user may already have installed on their machine or in another NativePHP app. |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +The binaries that ship with NativePHP are built to have a _minimal_ set of the most common PHP extensions required to |
| 17 | +run almost any web application you can build with Laravel. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +One key goal of NativePHP is to maintain feature parity across platforms so that you can reliably distribute your apps |
| 20 | +to users on any device. This means that we will only ship PHP with extensions that can be supported across Windows, |
| 21 | +macOS and Linux. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +On top of this, fewer PHP extensions means a smaller application size and attack surface. Beware that installing more |
| 24 | +extensions has both performance & [security](security) implications for your apps. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +The extensions that are included in the default binaries are defined in the |
| 27 | +[`php-extensions.txt`](https://github.com/NativePHP/php-bin/blob/main/php-extensions.txt) in the `php-bin` repo. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +If you think an extension is missing that would make sense as a default extension, feel free to |
| 30 | +[make a feature request](https://github.com/nativephp/laravel/issues/new/choose) for it. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +## Building custom binaries |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +NativePHP uses the awesome [`static-php-cli`](https://static-php.dev/) library to build distributable PHP binaries. |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +You may use this too to build your own binaries. Of course, you may build static binaries however you prefer. |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +Whichever method you use, you should aim to create a single-file executable that has statically linked all of its |
| 39 | +dependencies for each platform and architecture that you wish your app to run on. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +### Building apps with custom binaries |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +In order to use your custom binaries, you will need to instruct NativePHP where to find them. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +To do this, you may use the `NATIVEPHP_PHP_BINARY_PATH` environment variable. You can set this in your `.env` file. |
| 46 | +For example, if you store the binaries in a `bin` folder in the root of your application: |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +```dotenv |
| 49 | +NATIVEPHP_PHP_BINARY_PATH=/path/to/your-nativephp-app/bin/ |
| 50 | +``` |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +The binaries you are using need to be stored in a structure that mirrors the folder structure found in the `php-bin` |
| 53 | +package: |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +Note how the platform is the first folder (`linux`, `mac`, `win`) and the architecture is provided as a subfolder |
| 58 | +(`x64`, `arm64`, `x86`). |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +You do not need to build binaries for every PHP version or every platform; You only need binaries for the platforms you |
| 61 | +wish to support and for the version of PHP that your application requires. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +Make sure the binaries are zipped and named like so: |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | +```shell |
| 66 | +php-[PHP_MAJOR_VERSION].[PHP_MINOR_VERSION].zip |
| 67 | +``` |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +NativePHP will then build your application using the relevant binaries found in this custom location. |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +## A note on safety & support |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +When using custom binaries, you should make every reasonable effort to secure your build pipeline so as not to allow an |
| 74 | +attacker to introduce vulnerabilities into your PHP executables. |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +Further, any apps that use custom binaries will not be eligible for support via GitHub Issues. |
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