Where can I learn about PHP internals? [closed]

Question

What are good resources to start learning the internals of PHP and the Zend Engine?

Linton

One minute breezethrough at phpbuilder.com/articles/application-architecture/optimization/… – Herzberg

Answer 1

The PHP Manual has a (sadly mostly empty) chapter on PHP internals.

The main development mailing list is [email protected]. You can sign up via php.net and/or use Markmail to search the archives.

The git repository for PHP is located on git.php.net, but there is also a mirror on GitHub.

For browsing the source code you should use the lxr.php.net cross reference tool.

The PHP wiki has a list of various resources on PHP development (blog posts, books, slides, etc).

In particular there is an (older) book by Sara Golemon: Extending and Embedding PHP.

A more current and ongoing effort is http://www.phpinternalsbook.com

If you have questions, you should try the #php.pecl room on efnet.

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Also see this presentation by Sebastian Bergmann about Compiler Internals:

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/18171982/PHP-Compiler-Internals

And make sure to check Nikic's blog. He's got a number of posts on how to read the source:

• http://nikic.github.com/

In addition to that, you can check the PHP Credits for individual contributers:

• http://www.php.net/credits.php

A number of them run their own blogs which might contain more information.

Pokorny

aw i missed to see the link (php.net/manual/en/internals2.php) , i have browsed into php docs assuming that is Zend Engine, not php, php and Zend Engine(server) ? are different, am i right? – Linton

@Adam The Zend Engine is the part that parses, compiles and executes PHP code. As opposed to the PHP core that is just a few basic things, like Request handling and File and Network I/O. On top of that you got the various extensions. – Pokorny

btw the book is at 2006 is it ok ? – Linton

@Adam didnt read it. Can't tell how much of that is still up-to-date today. – Pokorny

thanks alot gordon especialy the php.net/credits.php i never thought about that haha,anyway lets wait for 1-2 days :). – Linton

I found this quite useful: php-internals.com/book (use google translator if you can't read it ;) – Reilly

@Gordon, I've a feeling Zend doesn't want to publish much writings on PHP internals to prevent yet more soon-to-be competitors. – Herzberg

@Herzberg your feelings are yours. – Pokorny

@Pokorny i found this resources and i think it's pretty useful too, scribd.com/document/49306684/building-custom-php-extensions , kchodorow.com/blog/2011/08/11/… , derickrethans.nl/talks/extensions-phpnw11.pdf – Airtoair

Answer 2

Another lecture on "how does it work" theme:

PHP UK Conference 2012 ^playlist - PHP under the hood ^slides, by Johannes Schlüter

Basketry

Answer 3

On http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/weblinux2/php/ch14_01.htm you can also find some interesting internals about writing php extensions

Rawalpindi

Answer 4

From Dutch PHP Conference (2009):

PHP Compiler Internals (mp3)

with slides:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18171982/PHP-Compiler-Internals

Reckless