PHP Packaging Guidelines

Fedora Packaging Guidelines for PHP addon modules

Different types of PHP packages

There are basically 4 different kinds of PHP modules, which are packaged for Fedora:

  • PECL (PHP Extension Community Library) modules, which are PHP modules usually written in C and are dynamically loaded by the PHP interpreter on startup.

  • PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository) modules, which are reusable components written in PHP, usually classes, which can be used in your own PHP applications and scripts by using e.g. the include() directive.

  • Composer registered libraries, which are reusable components written in PHP, usually PSR-0 compliant classes, registered on a package registry, most often on Packagist.

  • CHANNEL : packages which register a channel. A channel is a repository which provides PHP extensions.

  • Other packages providing a PHP extension not handled by PEAR/PECL mechanisms.

While upstream uses the same package and distribution format for PECL and PEAR, creating RPMs has to take some differences into account.

3 channels are defined on installation of php-pear:

  • pear.php.net (alias pear) : the default channel for PHP Extension and Application Repository

  • pecl.php.net (alias pecl) : the default channel for PHP Extension Community Library

  • __uri : Pseudo-channel for static packages

Other channels must be configured at RPM build time and at at RPM installation time.

Naming scheme

  • PECL packages from standard pecl channel should be named php-pecl-PECLPackageName-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.rpm.

  • PEAR packages from standard pear channel should be named php-pear-PEARPackageName-%{version}-%{release}.noarch.rpm.

  • CHANNEL packages should be named php-channel-ChannelAlias-%{version}-%{release}.noarch.rpm

  • Packages from another channel should be named php-ChannelAlias-PackageName-%{version}-%{release}.noarch.rpm

  • Composer enabled packages (referenced in packagist.org or another registry) should be named php-vendor-library-%{version}-%{release}.noarch.rpm (where vendor/library is the known packagist name, name attribute in composer.json). When vendor equals library, one can be dropped (ex symfony/symfony can be named php-symfony).

  • Other packages should be named php-PackageName-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.rpm; %{arch} can be noarch where appropriate.

Please make sure that a pure PHP package (PEAR, packagist…​) is correctly being built for noarch.

As for other packages, name should only use lowercase, underscore and slash replaced by dash.

The PECLPackageName and the PEARPackageName should be consistent with the upstream naming scheme. The Crack PHP Extension would thus be named php-pecl-crack with the resulting packages being php-pecl-crack-0.4-1.i386.rpm and php-pecl-crack-0.4-1.src.rpm.

Note that applications that happen to be written in PHP do not belong under the php-* namespace.

File Placement

Non-PEAR PHP software which provides shared libraries should put its PHP source files for such shared libraries in a subfolder of %{_datadir}/php, named according to the name of the software. For example, a library called Whizz_Bang (with a RPM called php-something-Whizz-Bang) would put the PHP source files for its shared libraries in %{_datadir}/php/Whizz_Bang.

A PSR-0 [1] compliant library would put its PHP files in %{_datadir}/php/

A PSR-4 [2] compliant library would put its PHP files in %{_datadir}/php/ in a PSR-0 compliant tree.

PEAR documentation provided by upstream are installed in %{pear_docdir}, should stay there, and must be marked as %doc.

PECL documentation provided by upstream is installed in %{pecl_docdir}, should stay there, and must be marked as %doc.

The composer.json file is not used, and should be installed as %doc as it provides useful information about the package and its dependencies.

Requires and Provides

PEAR Packages from the standard channel/repository

A PEAR package MUST have:

BuildRequires:    php-pear(PEAR)
Requires:         php-pear(PEAR)
Requires(post):   %{__pear}
Requires(postun): %{__pear}
Provides:         php-pear(foo) = %{version}

The virtual provide should match exactly upstream name, including case and underscore, ex: php-pear(Text_Wiki)

A PEAR package must have all its dependencies available as PEAR packages, so should only requires those using the php-pear(foo) virtual provides. Known exception for unbundled libraries (which are often bundled because not available in any PEAR channel).

Packages for CHANNEL (repository) configuration

A CHANNEL package MUST have :

Requires:         php-pear(PEAR)
Requires(post):   %{__pear}
Requires(postun): %{__pear}
Provides:         php-channel(channelname)

PEAR Packages from a non standard channel/repository

A PEAR package MUST have:

BuildRequires:    php-channel(channelname)
BuildRequires:    php-pear(PEAR)
Requires:         php-pear(PEAR)
Requires(post):   %{__pear}
Requires(postun): %{__pear}
Requires:         php-channel(channelname)
Provides:         php-pear(channelname/foo) = %{version}

Composer registered Packages

Each package registered on Packagist (which is the most widely used registry, so defined as the implicit one) MUST have

Provides:     php-composer(vendor/library) = %{version}

Package registered on another registry MUST have

Provides:     php-composer(registry_url/vendor/library) = %{version}

The virtual provide should match exactly upstream name, including underscore, ex: php-composer(pear/console_table)

Packages moved from PEAR to Composer/Packagist should also Provide php-pear(foo) when needed (used by other PEAR packages).

Packages must not Require any php-pear(foo), but should use php-composer(pear/foo).

composer.json useful attributes (see Composer schema documentation)

  • name

  • description : 1 line, could be used as RPM summary attribute

  • homepage : could be used as RPM URL attribute

  • license

  • require : describes mandatory dependencies PHP version, PHP extensions or other composer libraries, those must be required by the RPM package as php-composer(foo)

  • require-dev : describes development dependencies, usually useful a build time (ex: to run unit test), so could appear as BuidRequires

  • suggest : describes optional dependencies, so could appear as Requires (packager choice)

  • conflict : as RPM Conflicts

  • replace : as RPM Obsoletes

  • provide : for additional virtual provides, must also be in RPM Provides as php-composer(foo)

C extensions (PECL and others)

To be certain that a binary extension will run correctly with a particular version of PHP, it is necessary to check that a particular package has both API and ABIs matching the installed version of PHP. The mechanism for doing this is as follows:

BuildRequires: php-devel
Requires:      php(zend-abi) = %{php_zend_api}
Requires:      php(api) = %{php_core_api}

PECL Packages

PECL extension MUST have ABI check (see C extensions above).

A PECL package MUST also have:

Provides:     php-pecl(foo) = %{version}
Provides:     php-pecl(foo)%{?_isa}  = %{version}

PECL Packages from a non standard channel/repository

A PECL package from a non standard channel MUST have (instead of previous provides)

Requires: php-channel(channelname)
Provides: php-pecl(channelname/foo) = %{version}
Provides: php-pecl(channelname/foo)%{?_isa} = %{version}

Other Packages

PHP addons which are neither PEAR nor PECL should require what makes sense (either a base PHP version or a php-api, php(zend-abi) as necessary).

Apache requirement

A PHP library must not have an explicit Requires on php or httpd, since these libraries could be used with any webserver or any SAPI (php-cli, php-cgi, php-fpm, …​).

Only a PHP web application, which provides a specific Apache httpd configuration, should have a Requires on httpd and mod_php.

Extensions Requires

PHP extensions must have a Requires on all of the dependent extensions (php-date, php-gd, php-mbstring, …​). These extensions are virtual Provides of the php sub-packages.

Requiring a Minimum PHP version

If you need to specify a minimum PHP version, the recommended method is to add a Requires: php(language) >= $VERSION (where $VERSION is the minimum PHP version).

C extension and PECL package configuration files

Each extension should drop a configuration file in %{php_inidir} and/or %{php_ztsinidir} to enable the extension. This file must contain the name of the loaded extension. The file must use a numeric prefix to ensure correct load order:

  • range 00-19 is reserved for zend_extensions (ex: 10-opcache.ini, 15-xdebug.ini, …​)

  • range 20-39 is reserved for extensions from php sources (ex: 20-pdo.ini, 30-pdo_pgsql.ini, …​)

  • range 40-99 is available for other extensions (ex: 40-zip.ini, …​)

Macros and scriptlets

PHP ZTS extension

When the Apache HTTPD is run in worker mode (instead of prefork mode), the ZTS (Zend Thread Safe) version of PHP is used.

If an extension maintainer wants to provide a ZTS version of this extension, the maintainer must ensure that:

  • the extension is thread safe

  • the libraries used by the extension are thread safe

The php-devel package provides the necessary files to build ZTS modules and provides several helper macros:

For standard (NTS) extensions

%{__php}          %{_bindir}/php
%{php_extdir}     %{_libdir}/php/modules
%{php_inidir}     %{_sysconfdir}/php.d
%{php_incldir     %{_includedir}/php

For ZTS extensions

%{__ztsphp}       %{_bindir}/zts-php
%{php_ztsextdir}  %{_libdir}/php-zts/modules
%{php_ztsinidir}  %{_sysconfdir}/php-zts.d
%{php_ztsincldir  %{_includedir}/php-zts/php

php-devel provides the executables needed during the build of a ZTS extension, which are:

  • zts-phpize

  • zts-php-config

  • zts-php (which is only useful to run the test suite during build)

Packages for CHANNEL (repository) configuration

Here are some recommended scriptlets for properly registering and unregistering the channel:

%post
if [ $1 -eq  1 ] ; then
   %{__pear} channel-add %{pear_xmldir}/%{name}.xml > /dev/null || :
else
   %{__pear} channel-update %{pear_xmldir}/%{name}.xml > /dev/null ||:
fi

%postun
if [ $1 -eq 0 ] ; then
   %{__pear} channel-delete %{channelname} > /dev/null || :
fi

PEAR Modules

The php-pear package provides several useful macros:

  • %{pear_phpdir}

  • %{pear_docdir} (This evaluates to %{_docdir}/pear.)

  • %{pear_testdir}

  • %{pear_datadir}

  • %{pear_xmldir}

  • %{pear_metadir} (This evaluates to /var/lib/pear.)

These definitions for the .spec should be of interest:

BuildRequires:    php-pear >= 1:1.4.9-1.2
Provides:         php-pear(PackageName) = %{version}
Requires:         php-common >= 4.3, php-pear(PEAR)
Requires(post):   %{_bindir}/pear
Requires(postun): %{_bindir}/pear

Be sure you delete any PEAR metadata files at the end of %install:

rm -rf %{buildroot}/%{pear_metadir}/.??*

Here are some recommended scriptlets for properly registering the module:

%post
%{_bindir}/pear install --nodeps --soft --force --register-only %{pear_xmldir}/%{name}.xml >/dev/null ||:

And here are some recommended scriptlets for properly unregistering the module, from the standard channel:

%postun
if [ "$1" -eq "0" ] ; then
%{_bindir}/pear uninstall --nodeps --ignore-errors --register-only Foo_Bar >/dev/null ||:
fi

From a non standard channel (pear command requires the channel):

%postun
if [ "$1" -eq "0" ] ; then
%{_bindir}/pear uninstall --nodeps --ignore-errors --register-only Foo_channel/Foo_Bar >/dev/null ||:
fi

PECL Modules

The php-pear package provides several useful macros:

  • %{pecl_phpdir}

  • %{pecl_docdir}

  • %{pecl_testdir}

  • %{pecl_datadir}

  • %{pecl_xmldir}

You may need to define a few additional macros to extract some information from PHP. It is recommended that you use the following:

%global php_apiver  %((echo 0; php -i 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/^PHP API => //p') | tail -1)
%{!?__pecl:     %{expand: %%global __pecl     %{_bindir}/pecl}}
%{!?php_extdir: %{expand: %%global php_extdir %(php-config --extension-dir)}}

Module (un)registration is handled automatically by file triggers in the php-pear package.

For older releases, here are some recommended scriptlets for properly registering and unregistering a module:

BuildRequires: php-pear
Requires(post): %{__pecl}
Requires(postun): %{__pecl}

%post
%{pecl_install} %{pecl_xmldir}/%{name}.xml >/dev/null || :


%postun
if [ $1 -eq 0 ]  ; then
%{pecl_uninstall} %{pecl_name} >/dev/null || :
fi

Other Modules

If your module includes compiled code, you may need to define some macros to extract some information from PHP. It is recommended that you user the following:

%global php_apiver  %((echo 0; php -i 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/^PHP API => //p') | tail -1)
%global php_extdir  %(php-config --extension-dir 2>/dev/null || echo "undefined")
%global php_version %(php-config --version 2>/dev/null || echo 0)

Additional Hints for Packagers

PEAR & PECL Packages

The source archive contains a package.xml outside any directory, so you have to use use

%setup -q -c

in your %prep section to avoid writing files to the build root.

PEAR Packages

To create your initial specfile, you can use the default template provided by the rpmdevtools package:

rpmdev-newspec -t php-pear php-pear-Foo

Or you can generate one; make sure you have the php-pear-PEAR-Command-Packaging package installed:

pear make-rpm-spec Foo.tgz

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