Compile from Source

🐧 Linux Command Line

Compiling PHP from source offers greater flexibility in tailoring the installation to your specific needs. However, this process can be quite memory-intensive. Based on our tests, if your system has less than 2GB of available RAM, we do not recommend compiling from source, as you may encounter performance issues or compilation failures.

Install PHP

install-php.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Interactive input for PHP version
read -p "Please enter the PHP version you want to install (e.g., 8.3.15): " php_version

# Install required dependencies
dnf install -y gcc gcc-c++ make libxml2-devel bzip2-devel curl-devel libpng-devel libjpeg-devel libXpm-devel freetype-devel gmp-devel libmcrypt-devel oniguruma-devel libxslt-devel libzip-devel libwebp-devel zip cronie sqlite sqlite-devel systemd-devel

# Download and compile PHP
cd /usr/local/src
wget https://www.php.net/distributions/php-${php_version}.tar.gz
tar -xzf php-${php_version}.tar.gz
cd php-${php_version}

make clean
./configure \
	--prefix=/usr/local/php \
	--enable-gd \
	--enable-soap \
	--enable-intl \
	--enable-bcmath \
	--enable-sockets \
	--enable-opcache \
	--enable-mbstring \
	--enable-pcntl \
	--enable-fpm \
	--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/php \
	--with-fpm-user=www \
	--with-fpm-group=www \
	--with-fpm-systemd \
	--with-mysqli \
	--with-pdo-mysql \
	--with-openssl \
	--with-curl \
	--with-zip \
	--with-zlib \
	--with-bz2 \
	--with-external-pcre \
	--with-jpeg \
	--with-freetype \
	--with-xsl \
	--with-pear

make -j$(nproc)
make install
cp php.ini-production /usr/local/php/php.ini
cp /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf.default /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf

Create PHP-FPM Service

vi /etc/systemd/system/php-fpm.service

[Unit]
Description=PHP FastCGI Process Manager
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
RuntimeDirectory=php-fpm
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0750
RuntimeDirectoryOwner=www
RuntimeDirectoryGroup=www
PIDFile=/run/php-fpm.pid
ExecStart=/usr/local/php/sbin/php-fpm --nodaemonize --fpm-config /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR2 $MAINPID
ExecStop=/bin/kill -SIGQUIT $MAINPID
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Directory and Permissions

# The 'www' user needs read access to the PHP installation directory to load core files, but should not have root-level write access.
chown -R root:www /usr/local/php
chmod -R 750 /usr/local/php

# PHP-FPM requires access to extension modules (e.g., redis.so).
chown -R root:www /usr/local/php/lib/php/extensions
chmod -R 750 /usr/local/php/lib/php/extensions

# The PHP-FPM master process needs to read global and pool configuration files.
chown -R www:www /usr/local/php/etc
chmod -R 750 /usr/local/php/etc

Location of PHP Configuration Files

• PHP.ini location: /usr/local/php/php.ini
• PHP-FPM configuration file: /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf
• PHP FPM configuration directory: /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.d/

Ansible Playbook

install-php.yml

- name: Compile and install PHP
  hosts: all
  remote_user: root
  vars:
    php_version: "8.3.15"
    php_prefix: "/usr/local/php"
    php_user: "www"
    php_group: "www"

  tasks:
    - name: Install required dependencies
      dnf:
        name:
          - gcc
          - gcc-c++
          - make
          - libxml2-devel
          - bzip2-devel
          - curl-devel
          - libpng-devel
          - libjpeg-devel
          - libXpm-devel
          - freetype-devel
          - gmp-devel
          - libmcrypt-devel
          - oniguruma-devel
          - libxslt-devel
          - libzip-devel
          - libwebp-devel
          - zip
          - cronie
          - sqlite
          - sqlite-devel
          - systemd-devel
        state: present

    - name: Download PHP source code
      get_url:
        url: "https://www.php.net/distributions/php-{{ php_version }}.tar.gz"
        dest: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}.tar.gz"

    - name: Extract PHP source code
      unarchive:
        src: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}.tar.gz"
        dest: "/usr/local/src/"
        remote_src: true

    - name: Check if Makefile exists
      stat:
        path: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}/Makefile"
      register: makefile_stat

    - name: Clean previous PHP build
      command: make clean
      args:
        chdir: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}"
      when: makefile_stat.stat.exists

    - name: Configure PHP
      command: >
        ./configure
        --prefix={{ php_prefix }}
        --enable-gd
        --enable-soap
        --enable-intl
        --enable-bcmath
        --enable-sockets
        --enable-opcache
        --enable-mbstring
        --enable-pcntl
        --enable-fpm
        --with-config-file-path={{ php_prefix }}
        --with-fpm-user={{ php_user }}
        --with-fpm-group={{ php_group }}
        --with-mysqli
        --with-pdo-mysql
        --with-openssl
        --with-curl
        --with-zip
        --with-zlib
        --with-bz2
        --with-external-pcre
        --with-jpeg
        --with-freetype
        --with-xsl
        --with-pear
      args:
        chdir: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}"
      register: configure_output
      changed_when: configure_output.rc != 0

    - name: Compile and install PHP (/tmp/php_build_output.log)
      shell: |
        set -o pipefail
        make -j"{{ ansible_processor_vcpus }}" | tee /tmp/php_build_output.log
        make install
      args:
        chdir: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}"
      register: php_build_output
      changed_when: php_build_output.rc != 0

    - name: Copy php.ini production configuration
      copy:
        src: "/usr/local/src/php-{{ php_version }}/php.ini-production"
        dest: "{{ php_prefix }}/php.ini"
        remote_src: true
        mode: "0644"

    - name: Configure php.ini
      vars:
        php_settings:
          - {key: "include_path", value: '".:/usr/local/php/lib/php"'}
          - {key: "expose_php", value: "Off"}
          - {key: "error_log", value: '"/var/log/php-error.log"'}
          - {key: "max_execution_time", value: "30"}
          - {key: "memory_limit", value: "128M"}
          - {key: "post_max_size", value: "8M"}
          - {key: "display_errors", value: "Off"}
          - {key: "disable_functions", value: "exec,passthru,shell_exec,system,proc_open,popen,show_source"}
          - {key: "mysqli.default_socket", value: "/run/mysqld.sock"}
          - {key: "pdo_mysql.default_socket", value: "/run/mysqld.sock"}
      lineinfile:
        path: /usr/local/php/php.ini
        regexp: "^{{ item.key }} ="
        line: "{{ item.key }} = {{ item.value }}"
        create: true
        mode: "0644"
      loop: "{{ php_settings }}"

    - name: Copy default PHP-FPM configuration
      copy:
        src: "{{ php_prefix }}/etc/php-fpm.conf.default"
        dest: "{{ php_prefix }}/etc/php-fpm.conf"
        remote_src: false
        mode: "0644"

    - name: Update php-fpm.conf configuration
      lineinfile:
        path: "{{ php_prefix }}/etc/php-fpm.conf"
        regexp: "{{ item.regexp }}"
        line: "{{ item.line }}"
      loop:
        - {regexp: "^;?pid =", line: "pid = /run/php-fpm.pid"}
        - {regexp: "^;?error_log =", line: "error_log = /var/log/php-fpm.log"}
        - {regexp: "^;?log_level =", line: "log_level = notice"}

    - name: Create log files
      file:
        path: "{{ item }}"
        state: touch
        owner: "{{ php_user }}"
        group: "{{ php_group }}"
        mode: "0640"
      with_items:
        - /var/log/php-fpm.log
        - /var/log/php-error.log

    - name: Set permissions for PHP directories
      file:
        path: "{{ php_prefix }}"
        owner: "root"
        group: "{{ php_group }}"
        mode: "0750"
        recurse: true

    - name: Ensure PHP extensions directory is accessible
      file:
        path: "{{ php_prefix }}/lib/php/extensions"
        owner: "root"
        group: "{{ php_group }}"
        mode: "0750"
        recurse: true

    - name: Set ownership and permissions for PHP-FPM configuration
      file:
        path: "{{ php_prefix }}/etc"
        owner: "{{ php_user }}"
        group: "{{ php_group }}"
        mode: "0750"
        recurse: true

    - name: Ensure PHP-FPM log directory exists
      file:
        path: /var/log/php-fpm
        state: directory
        owner: "{{ php_user }}"
        group: "{{ php_group }}"
        mode: "0750"

    - name: Create php-fpm systemd service file
      copy:
        dest: /etc/systemd/system/php-fpm.service
        mode: "0644"
        content: |
          [Unit]
          Description=PHP FastCGI Process Manager
          After=network.target

          [Service]
          Type=simple
          RuntimeDirectory=php-fpm
          RuntimeDirectoryMode=0750
          RuntimeDirectoryOwner=www
          RuntimeDirectoryGroup=www
          PIDFile=/run/php-fpm.pid
          ExecStart=/usr/local/php/sbin/php-fpm --nodaemonize --fpm-config /usr/local/php/etc/php-fpm.conf
          ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR2 $MAINPID
          ExecStop=/bin/kill -SIGQUIT $MAINPID
          PrivateTmp=true

          [Install]
          WantedBy=multi-user.target

    - name: Reload systemd
      systemd:
        daemon_reload: true

    - name: Enable and start PHP-FPM
      systemd:
        name: php-fpm
        enabled: true
        state: started