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PHP

The deplo.io build environment makes use of the Paketo PHP buildpack.

Example App​

We have a basic Symfony app in our examples repository. You can deploy it with nctl:

nctl create application symfony \
  --git-url=https://github.com/ninech/deploio-examples \
  --git-sub-path=php/symfony

Using extensions​

As already mentioned, we are currently using the Paketo PHP buildpack for providing PHP support. It includes the Paketo php-dist buildpack which provides the PHP binary distribution. The built PHP binary distribution includes quite some extensions which can be used in your PHP application on deplo.io. All of them are defined in separate yaml files per PHP version in the Paketo php-dist buildpack.

Currently it is not possible to use extensions, which are not defined in the above mentioned files.

It is important to mention, that none of the pre-built extensions gets loaded by default (due to memory usage optimizations)! You will either have to load them via requirements in Composer or via custom *.ini files. Both approaches will be explained in the following sections.

Loading extensions via Composer​

If you are using Composer as a package manager, you can specify extensions to load through the composer.json file. For example, to load the bz2, curl and zip extensions you can use the following content:

{
  "require": {
    "php": ">=8.1",
    "ext-bz2": "*",
    "ext-curl": "*",
    "ext-zip": "*"
  }
}

This is also documented in the official composer documentation.

Loading extensions via custom .ini files​

If you are not using Composer, you can load extensions via custom *.ini files located at <APP-ROOT>/.php.ini.d/*.ini in your application source code repository. For example, to load the bz2, curl and zip extensions you could create a file <APP-ROOT>/.php.ini.d/custom-extensions.ini with the following content:

extension=bz2.so
extension=curl.so
extension=zip.so

Composer Platform requirements​

As the build and runtime containers are different on Deploio you may run into issues where you cannot build a project successfully due to platform requirements not being fulfilled by the build-time container. You can ignore these requirements using either

--build-env=BP_COMPOSER_INSTALL_OPTIONS="--ignore-platform-reqs"

which will ignore all build requirements, or you can scope it to specific extensions

--build-env=BP_COMPOSER_INSTALL_OPTIONS="--ignore-platform-req=ext-mysqli"

When doing this you will see from the logs that the buildpack will still validate that the extensions you require are available in the runtime image, but that the build will no longer fail due to the build container missing extensions.

Build env considerations​

The build process offers a few env variables to adjust it to your use-case. See the how to section of the documentation for all available variables.

Select a web server​

By default, the PHP built-in web server will be used. For production use-cases we recommend using Apache or NGINX:

  • PHP Built-in Web Server

    --build-env=BP_PHP_SERVER=php-server

  • Apache HTTPD Web Server

    --build-env=BP_PHP_SERVER=httpd

  • NGINX Web Server

    --build-env=BP_PHP_SERVER=nginx

Additionally, if required, the web server can be customized further by providing your own server-specific config file.

Configure the web directory​

Some frameworks put the index.php in a separate directory like public instead of the repository root. When the web server is HTTPD or NGINX, the web directory defaults to htdocs. In any case, you can override the web directory with a build env variable.

--build-env=BP_PHP_WEB_DIR=public

Symfony​

For Symfony to build without failure, the auto-scripts currently have to be disabled:

--build-env=BP_COMPOSER_INSTALL_OPTIONS=--no-scripts -o