Git Access

If you wish to get the latest PHP source tree, you can obtain it through Git. You should be warned that the Git version is a development version, and as such, is often unstable, and may not even compile properly. The advantage of using Git, though, is that you can get the latest fixes and updates, without having to wait for the official releases.

PHP uses an advanced configuration system that requires you to have the following tools. re2c is only necessary for developers and can be found here. All other utilities can be obtained from the GNU FTP site.

• autoconf:
  • PHP 7.3 and later: 2.68+
  • PHP 7.2: 2.64+
  • PHP 7.1 and earlier: 2.59+
• libtool: 1.4.x+ (except 1.4.2)
• re2c:
  • PHP 8.3 and later: 1.0.3+
  • PHP 8.2 and earlier: 0.13.4+
• bison:
  • PHP 7.4 and later: 3.0.0+
  • PHP 7.3 and earlier: 2.4+

If you're experiencing problems, see also the section on buildconf failures.

Steps for using PHP from Git

1. You can retrieve the PHP source code from our GitHub with this command:
   
   git clone https://github.com/php/php-src.git
   
   You can also download a snapshot from GitHub:
   
   
   • Go to the php-src project page.
   • Select the branch you're interested in from the branch dropdown.
   • Click on the Download ZIP button.
2. Make sure you're in the right directory to work on PHP:
   
   cd php-src
   
   
3. You can then check out the branch you want to build, for example:
   
   PHP 7.4: git checkout PHP-7.4
   PHP 8.0: git checkout PHP-8.0
   PHP 8.1: git checkout PHP-8.1
   PHP 8.2: git checkout PHP-8.2
   PHP HEAD: git checkout master
   
   

4. Note that certain combinations of autoconf and libtool may not work when used together, particularly with historical versions of PHP. See below for details.
   Also, certain versions of autoconf may generate warnings of AC_PROG_CPP called before AC_PROG_CC. These messages can usually be ignored.

5. Run ./buildconf to generate the configure script. This may take several moments.
6. From this point onwards, installation is similar to the installation of one of the official packages with one main difference – you will need a version of bison that is supported for the PHP version you want to build. You may also require re2c if you intend to change any of the scanner and parser files PHP uses.

There are many other things, such as the XML source code for the documentation, available via Git. See the web-based view of the Git server to see what is available.

The PHP Wiki has a useful Git FAQ, which provides useful tips and cheatsheets for using the PHP Git repository, and if you want to become involved in developing PHP, the Git Workflow page is also likely to be of interest.

PHP manual

The PHP manual is hosted on Git. To checkout the latest English version of the PHP manual:
git clone https://github.com/php/doc-en.git ./phpdoc-en

Historical issues

autoconf and libtool information for PHP 5.3 and below

There seem to be problems with libtool 1.4.2. It is suggested that you use libtool 1.4, along with autoconf 2.13 and automake 1.4. You should also ensure that autoconf, automake and libtool are installed in the same directory. libtool 1.5 will not work.

The following combinations are known to work with PHP 5.3 and below:

• autoconf 2.13, automake 1.4 and libtool 1.4.3
• autoconf 2.13, automake 1.5 and libtool 1.4.3

Since PHP 4.3 automake and its aclocal program are no longer needed to build PHP.

If you have multiple versions of autoconf installed on your computer, as is common for many UNIXes, you can set the PHP_AUTOCONF and PHP_AUTOHEADER variables when running buildconf to indicate which versions it should use e.g.:
PHP_AUTOCONF=autoconf213 PHP_AUTOHEADER=autoheader213 ./buildconf

Zend/zend_language_scanner.c: No such file or directory

PHP only supports flex 2.5.4, not later versions as they broke backwards compatibility. Please note that PHP 5.3 and later do not require flex at all.