PHP Extended Lifecycle Support: A deeper look

PHP Extended Lifecycle Support provides security updates and versions if you’re interested in maintaining compatibility with existing PHP code while remaining secure against the latest language-level vulnerabilities.

PHP Extended Lifecycle Support is also a very flexible solution, and provides you with the ability to run different versions of PHP, side-by-side, on the same system. This allows you to have, for example, different websites running on top of different PHP versions without issues.

Let’s take a look at how this is achieved.

When you deploy an updated version of PHP through PHP ELS, using your system’s regular update tool (yum, dnf, apt), the new version will be installed under “/opt/alt/php[version]/”. This means that all modules, configurations and additional files pertaining to this version will be contained inside that path. Different versions of PHP will each have their own path and can coexist without issues on the same system. Below you will find the location of all the relevant files, should you want to make any changes.

The bin files:

[root@localhost ~]# ll /opt/alt/php[version]/usr/bin/
bytekit          hphpa            pear             pecl             phar.phar        
phpcb            php-config       phpcpd           phploc           phpunit-skelgen
dbunit           lsphp            peardev          phar             php              
php-cgi          phpcov           phpize           phpunit          ppw

Modules and pecl extensions:

ls /opt/alt/php[version]/usr/lib64/php/modules/
ZendGuardLoader.so  imagick.so         oci8.so          stem.so
amqp.so             imap.so            odbc.so          stomp.so
apc.so              inclued.so         opcache.so       suhosin.so
apcu.so             inotify.so         pdf.so           sybase_ct.so
apm.so              interbase.so       pdo.so           sysvmsg.so
ares.so             intl.so            pdo_dblib.so     sysvsem.so
bcmath.so           ioncube_loader.so  pdo_firebird.so  sysvshm.so
big_int.so          ixed.5.4.lin       pdo_mysql.so     tideways.so
bitset.so           jsmin.so           pdo_oci.so       tidy.so
brotli.so           json.so            pdo_odbc.so      timezonedb.so
bz2_filter.so       ldap.so            pdo_pgsql.so     trader.so
dba.so              libevent.so        pdo_sqlite.so    translit.so
dbase.so            libsodium.so       pgsql.so         uploadprogress.so
dbx.so              luasandbox.so      phalcon.so       uri_template.so
dom.so              lzf.so             phar.so          uuid.so
doublemetaphone.so  mailparse.so       posix.so         wddx.so
eaccelerator.so     mbstring.so        propro.so        weakref.so
eio.so              mcrypt.so          pspell.so        xcache.so
enchant.so          memcache.so        quickhash.so     xcache_3.so
fileinfo.so         memcached.so       radius.so        xdebug.so
functional.so       mongo.so           raphf.so         xhprof.so
gd.so               mongodb.so         rar.so           xmlreader.so
gender.so           msgpack.so         recode.so        xmlrpc.so
geoip.so            mssql.so           redis.so         xmlwriter.so
geos.so             mysql.so           rsync.so         xrange.so
gmagick.so          mysqli.so          snmp.so          xsl.so
gnupg.so            mysqlnd.so         soap.so          yaf.so
haru.so             ncurses.so         sockets.so       yaml.so
hidef.so            nd_mysql.so        solr.so          yaz.so
htscanner.so        nd_mysqli.so       spl_types.so     zip.so
http.so             nd_pdo_mysql.so    ssh2.so          zmq.so
igbinary.so         oauth.so           stats.so

Running code on a specific version through the CLI:

[root@localhost ~]# /opt/alt/php[version]/usr/bin/php helloworld.php 
Hello, World!

Location of ini config files:

[root@localhost ~]# ls /opt/alt/php[version]/etc/php.d.all/
40-leveldb.ini        mailparse.ini     redis.ini
40-snuffleupagus.ini  mbstring.ini      rrd.ini
40-vld.ini            mcrypt.ini        snmp.ini
amqp.ini              memcache.ini      snuffleupagus-default.rules
apcu.ini              memcached.ini     soap.ini
bcmath.ini            mongodb.ini       sockets.ini
dba.ini               mysqli.ini        sodium.ini
dbase.ini             mysqlnd.ini       solr.ini
dom.ini               nd_mysqli.ini     sourceguardian.ini
eio.ini               nd_pdo_mysql.ini  sqlsrv.ini
enchant.ini           newrelic.ini      ssh2.ini
ffmpeg.ini            oauth.ini         stats.ini
fileinfo.ini          oci8.ini          swoole.ini
gd.ini                odbc.ini          sysvmsg.ini
gearman.ini           opcache.ini       sysvsem.ini
gender.ini            pdf.ini           sysvshm.ini
geoip.ini             pdo.ini           tideways_xhprof.ini
geos.ini              pdo_dblib.ini     tidy.ini
gmagick.ini           pdo_firebird.ini  timezonedb.ini
gnupg.ini             pdo_mysql.ini     trader.ini
grpc.ini              pdo_oci.ini       uploadprogress.ini
http.ini              pdo_odbc.ini      uuid.ini
igbinary.ini          pdo_pgsql.ini     vips.ini
imagick.ini           pdo_sqlite.ini    xdebug.ini
imap.ini              pdo_sqlsrv.ini    xmlreader.ini
inotify.ini           pgsql.ini         xmlrpc.ini
intl.ini              phalcon4.ini      xmlwriter.ini
ioncube_loader.ini    phar.ini          xsl.ini
jsmin.ini             posix.ini         yaml.ini
json.ini              propro.ini        yaz.ini
ldap.ini              pspell.ini        zip.ini
luasandbox.ini        psr.ini           zmq.ini
lzf.ini               raphf.ini

Location of default.ini:

ls /opt/alt/php[version]/etc/php.d/default.ini

Listing enabled modules on a specific version:

[root@localhost ~]# /opt/alt/php73/usr/bin/php -m
[PHP Modules]
bz2
calendar
Core
ctype
curl
date
exif
filter
ftp
gettext
gmp
hash
iconv
libxml
openssl
pcntl
pcre
readline
Reflection
session
shmop
SimpleXML
SPL
sqlite3
standard
tokenizer
xml
zlib

[Zend Modules]

Enabling a module through the CLI:

[root@localhost ~]# /opt/alt/php73/usr/bin/php -d "extension=igbinary.so" -m
[PHP Modules]
bz2
calendar
Core
ctype
curl
date
exif
filter
ftp
gettext
gmp
hash
iconv
igbinary
libxml
openssl
pcntl
pcre
readline
Reflection
session
shmop
SimpleXML
SPL
sqlite3
standard
tokenizer
xml
zlib

[Zend Modules]

Each version is entirely self-contained, and changing configurations in one will not impact the others, which is a desired feature in hosting environments.

We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how we can improve PHP Extended Lifecycle Support to better address your needs or use cases.