I wish to be able to do something like:
php --determine-oldest-supported-php-version test.php
And get this output:
7.2
That is, the php binary checks test.php for all function calls or syntax used, and then spits out the oldest version of PHP which would be able to run the script.
The purpose would be for me to create a script which goes through all the .php files in my library/framework and figures out which version of PHP I should consider to be the "oldest supported version".
Currently, I'm doing this manually. Whenever I knowingly use a new feature, function or syntax, I bump up a variable to "7.4" or whatever, and then compare the currently used PHP version against that on runtime. This is not ideal, as you can imagine, and I could very well forget to bump up this value or bump it up too much, or too little, etc.
It would be much nicer to be able to determine this automatically, with such a feature in PHP itself.
I have of course looked through the list of options and PHP has no such feature as far as I can tell. Since I basically answered my own question right away, are there any plans on such a feature in the future?
The only guarantee given is that PHP will remain compatible within the same major version.
You may be interested in looking at the article
Why You Should Be Using Supported PHP Versions.
The tool you are looking for is the GitHub project
PHP_CodeSniffer,
further described in the article
PHPCompatibility update.
You may run it using a command such as:
phpcs --standard=PHPCompatibility --runtime-set testVersion 5.4 <path-of-your-php-files>
If I would like to distribute PHP application with installer(package system of OS) how should I proceed? I don't want PHP files to be there, just working application, so when I type 'app' into console, it ends up being launching application, without need to install PHP on system(no php installation on host required). I would also like the application to have patch-able byte-code, so it's in parts, loaded when needed and only part needs to be replaced on update.
What I would do now is following:
->Compile PHP with extensions for specific platform.
->Make binary application which launches '/full/php app' when app is launched.
->Pack it in installer in a way, that there would be binary added to path when added, launching specific installation of PHP which is alongside the app with argument of start point->App would be running.
Problem is:
Maybe I don't want my PHP files to be exposed(in application, there will be available source anyway) is there some ready made stuff to do this? Is there some better way than I proposed?
Alternative: Modifying OP Cache to work with "packing" application to deliver byte codes to modified OP Cache which just reads the cache.
My suggestion would be a tiny tool I just finished, for almost exactly the same problem. (Oh yes I tried all the others but they're old and rusty, sometimes they're stuck with 4.x syntax, have no support, have no proper documentation, etc)
So here's RapidEXE:
http://deneskellner.com/sw/rapidexe
In the classical way, it's not a really-real compiler, just a glorified packer, but does exactly what you need: the output exe will be standalone, carrying everything with it and transparently building an ad-hoc runtime environment. Don't worry, it all happens very fast.
It uses PHP 7.2 / Win64 by default but has 5.x too, for XP compatibility.
It's freeware, obviously. (MIT License.)
(Just telling this because I don't want anyone to think I'm advertising or something. I just took a few minutes to read the guidelines about own-product answers and I'm trying to stay within the Code of the Jedi here.)
However...
I would also like the application to have patch-able byte-code, so it's in parts, loaded when needed and only part needs to be replaced on update.
It's easier to recompile the exe. You can extract the payload pieces of course but the source pack is one big zip; there seems to be no real advantage of handling it separately. Recompiling a project is just one command.
Maybe I don't want my PHP files to be exposed(in application, there will be available source anyway)
In this case, the exe contains your source compressed but eventually they get extracted into a temp folder. They're deleted immediately after run but, well, this is no protection whatsoever. Obfuscation seems to be the only viable option.
If something goes wrong, feel free to comment or drop me a line on developer-at-deneskellner-dot-com. (I mean, I just finished it, it's brand new, it may misbehave so consider it something like a beta for now.)
Happy compiling!
PHP doesn't do that natively, but here are a few ideas:
Self-extracting archive
Many archival programs allow you to create a self-extracting archive and some even allow to run a program after extraction. Configure it so that it extracts php.exe and all your code to a temp folder and then runs ir from there; deleting after the script has complete.
Transpilers/compilers
There's the old HPHC which translates PHP code to C++, and its wikipedia age also contains links to other, similar projects. Perhaps you can take advantage of those.
Modified PHP
PHP itself is opensource. You should be able to modify it withot too much difficulty to take the source code from another location, like some resource compiled directly inside the php.exe.
Use Zend Guard tool that compiles and converts the plain-text PHP scripts into a platform-independent binary format known as a 'Zend Intermediate Code' file. These encoded binary files can then be distributed instead of the plain text PHP. Zend Guard loaders are available for Windows and Linux platform that enables PHP to run the scripts encoded by Zend Guard.
Refer to http://www.zend.com/en/products/zend-guard
I would like to add another answer for anyone who might be Googling for answers.
Peach Pie compiler/runtime
There is an alternative method to run (and build apps from) .php source codes, without using the standard php.exe runtime. The solution is based on C#/.NET and is actually able to compile php source files to .NET bytecode.
This allows you to distribute your program without exposing its source code.
You can learn more about the project at:
https://www.peachpie.io/
You've got 3 overlapping questions.
1. Can I create a stand-alone executable from a PHP application?
Answered in this question. TL;DR: yes, but it's tricky, and many of the tools you might use are semi-abandoned.
2. Can I package my executable for distribution on client machines?
Yes, though it depends on how you answer question 1. If you use the .Net compiler, your options are different to the C++ option.
3. Can I protect my source code once I've created the application?
Again, depends on how you answer question 1. Many compilers include an "obfuscator" option which makes it hard to make sense of any information you get from decompiling the app. However, a determined attacker can probably get through that (this is why software piracy is possible).
I am building php from source on a new CentOS box and as usual I have to wrangle up all the various configuration options I might need. This gets tricky because there are various extensions that I want and certain options that I always for get to put in the .configure script. Not only that but PHP 5.3 has has different defaults for various options.
Is there an interactive or annotated version of the configure script somewhere or a good set of defaults to reference?
Thanks!
Grab the existing PHP SRPM, update the spec with the new version, release, and tarball, and rebuild.
I have custom scripts that are were written near the change of php4 and php5 and I am looking to find all of the php4 versions easily so that I can rewrite them so that they work with php5.3. Is there a tool that can perform this on my local machine or the server?
I think that it's almost impossible to detect clearly which script will throw errors in php5. Problem can by very small, and it can show up dynamically (like bad data type parsed as argument to function).
In your place, i would write simple directory tree "traveller" and scan .php files for deprecated function etc. (like is_a -> instanceOf change).
You can found some help here, to do some tool:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.incompatible.php
of course, also search for .php4 files and take a look for this ones.
Happens that I've ended up working on a big PHP program and I need a program (or easy to install script) which draws a flow control/call graph of a PHP application (ie; must work over multiple PHP files).
Already saw stuff like Graphviz, not sure which one works for PHP?
Any suggestions?
Cheers!
I have never used any tool that can do that statically (i.e. from source files), but here's a way to get a callgraph when executing a script/application.
First, you need to install the Xdebug extension -- on a development/testing server (don't install it on a production server : it's quite bad for performances ^^ )
Then, you can use its profiling features to generate a .cachegrindout file corresponding to the execution of a page-load.
After that, you can load that .cachegrindout file with KCacheGrind (On linux -- I don't think there's a windows version) ; KCacheGrind can generate call-graphs from .cachegrindout files.
And here's an example of callgraph you can get :
(source: pascal-martin.fr)
(Here's, it's been generated from a .cachegrindout file obtained while loading a page of Dotclear, a blogging software)
Doxygen can do it statically. Just doxygen -d to create a config file, then edit it to create callgraphs.