Guidelines for packaging PHP addon modules
Different kinds of packages
There are basically 4 different kinds of php modules, which are packaged for Fedora:
- PECL (PHP Extention Community Library), which are PHP modules usually written in C, which are dynamically loaded by the PHP interpreter on startup.
- PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository), 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.
- CHANNEL : a package which register a channel. A channel is a repository which provides php extensions
- Other package providing php extension not handled by pear/pecl mechanisms
While upstream used 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 Repositorypecl.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.
- Packages referenced in packagist.org (and composer enabled) 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 = library, one can be droped (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.
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 web 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 /usr/share/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 /usr/share/php/Whizz_Bang.
A PSR-0 [1] compliant library would put its PHP files in /usr/share/php/<Vendor Name>
PEAR documentation provided by upstream are installed in %{pear_docdir}, should stay there, and must be marked as %doc.
PECL documentation provided by upstream are installed in %{pecl_docdir}, should stay there, and must be marked as %doc.
The composer.json file are not used, and should be installed as %doc as it provides usefull 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}
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}
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 has evolved over time and is as follows:
For Fedora (all current versions):
BuildRequires: php-devel
Requires: php(zend-abi) = %{php_zend_api}
Requires: php(api) = %{php_core_api}
Details on what to do for EPEL branches EL-4 and EL-5 can be found here: Packaging:EPEL#PHP_ABI_Check_Handling
PECL Packages
PECL extension MUST have ABI check (see previous)
A PECL package MUST also have:
BuildRequires: php-pear
Requires(post): %{__pecl}
Requires(postun): %{__pecl}
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). This works for all released versions of Fedora and RHEL/EPEL-6, but does NOT work for RHEL/EPEL-5. For RHEL/EPEL-5 packages, you will need to use Requires: php-common >= $VERSION.
C extensions and PECL packages configuration file
Each extension should drop a configuration file in %{php_inidir} and/or %{php_ztsinidir} to enable the extension. This file must contains the name of the loaded extension. Starting with Fedora 21, 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 in fedora >= 17 (5.4.0) provides the necessary files to build ZTS modules and provides several new 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 %{pear_phpdir}, except in Fedora 19+, where it 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}/.??*
The %{pear_metadir} macro is not present on EPEL, please see: EPEL:Packaging#PHP_PEAR_Macros
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 in Fedora Core 5 and above (version 1:1.4.9-1.2) 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)}}
And here are some recommended scriptlets for properly registering and unregistering the module:
%post
%{pecl_install} %{pecl_xmldir}/%{name}.xml >/dev/null || :
%postun
if [ $1 -eq 0 ] ; then
%{pecl_uninstall} %{pecl_name} >/dev/null || :
fi
These scriptlets are not correct on EPEL, please see: Packaging:EPEL#PHP_PECL_Module_Scriptlets
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