xref: /PHP-5.4/README.UNIX-BUILD-SYSTEM (revision 9b31c51d)
1PHP Build System V5 Overview
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3- supports Makefile.ins during transition phase
4- not-really-portable Makefile includes have been eliminated
5- supports separate build directories without VPATH by using
6  explicit rules only
7- does not waste disk-space/CPU-time for building temporary libraries
8  => especially noticeable on slower systems
9- slow recursive make replaced with one global Makefile
10- eases integration of proper dependencies
11- adds PHP_DEFINE(what[, value]) which creates a single include-file
12  per what.  This will allow more fine-grained dependencies.
13- abandoning the "one library per directory" concept
14- improved integration of the CLI
15- several new targets
16  build-modules: builds and copies dynamic modules into modules/
17  install-cli: installs the CLI only, so that the install-sapi
18               target does only what its name says
19- finally abandoned automake (still requires aclocal at this time)
20- changed some configure-time constructs to run at buildconf-time
21- upgraded shtool to 1.5.4
22- removed $(moduledir) (use EXTENSION_DIR)
23
24The Reason For a New System
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26It became more and more apparent that there is a severe need
27for addressing the portability concerns and improving the chance
28that your build is correct (how often have you been told to
29"make clean"? When this is done, you won't need to anymore).
30
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32If You Build PHP on a Unix System
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35You, as a user of PHP, will notice no changes.  Of course, the build
36system will be faster, look better and work smarter.
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40If You Are Developing PHP
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45Extension developers:
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47Makefile.ins are abandoned.  The files which are to be compiled
48are specified in the config.m4 now using the following macro:
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50PHP_NEW_EXTENSION(foo, foo.c bar.c baz.cpp, $ext_shared)
51
52E.g. this enables the extension foo which consists of three source-code
53modules, two in C and one in C++.  And, depending on the user's wishes,
54the extension will even be built as a dynamic module.
55
56The full syntax:
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58PHP_NEW_EXTENSION(extname, sources [, shared [,sapi_class[, extra-cflags]]])
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60Please have a look at acinclude.m4 for the gory details and meanings
61of the other parameters.
62
63And that's basically it for the extension side.
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65If you previously built sub-libraries for this module, add
66the source-code files here as well.  If you need to specify
67separate include directories, do it this way:
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69PHP_NEW_EXTENSION(foo, foo.c mylib/bar.c mylib/gregor.c,,,-I@ext_srcdir@/lib)
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71E.g. this builds the three files which are located relative to the
72extension source directory and compiles all three files with the
73special include directive (@ext_srcdir@ is automatically replaced).
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75Now, you need to tell the build system that you want to build files
76in a directory called $ext_builddir/lib:
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78PHP_ADD_BUILD_DIR($ext_builddir/lib)
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80Make sure to call this after PHP_NEW_EXTENSION, because $ext_builddir
81is only set by the latter.
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83If you have a complex extension, you might to need add special
84Make rules.  You can do this by calling PHP_ADD_MAKEFILE_FRAGMENT
85in your config.m4 after PHP_NEW_EXTENSION.
86
87This will read a file in the source-dir of your extension called
88Makefile.frag.  In this file, $(builddir) and $(srcdir) will be
89replaced by the values which are correct for your extension
90and which are again determined by the PHP_NEW_EXTENSION macro.
91
92Make sure to prefix *all* relative paths correctly with either
93$(builddir) or $(srcdir).  Because the build system does not
94change the working directory anymore, we must use either
95absolute paths or relative ones to the top build-directory.
96Correct prefixing ensures that.
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99SAPI developers:
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101Instead of using PHP_SAPI=foo/PHP_BUILD_XYZ, you will need to type
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103PHP_SELECT_SAPI(name, type, sources.c)
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105I.e. specify the source-code files as above and also pass the
106information regarding how PHP is supposed to be built (shared
107module, program, etc).
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109For example for APXS:
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111PHP_SELECT_SAPI(apache, shared, sapi_apache.c mod_php5.c php_apache.c)
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115General info
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117The foundation for the new system is the flexible handling of
118sources and their contexts.  With the help of macros you
119can define special flags for each source-file, where it is
120located, in which target context it can work, etc.
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122Have a look at the well documented macros
123PHP_ADD_SOURCES(_X) in acinclude.m4.
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