Speeding up the Web with PHP 7

PHPConf Taiwan 2015

Taipei

Oct.9, 2015

http://talks.php.net/taiwan15

Rasmus Lerdorf
@rasmus

20 Years of PHP!??

PHP Announcement June 8, 1995

Posted to comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi

Subject: Announce: Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools)

Announcing the Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) version 1.0.
These tools are a set of small tight cgi binaries written in C.
They perform a number of functions including:

. Logging accesses to your pages in your own private log files
. Real-time viewing of log information
. Providing a nice interface to this log information
. Displaying last access information right on your pages
. Full daily and total access counters
. Banning access to users based on their domain
. Password protecting pages based on users' domains
. Tracking accesses ** based on users' e-mail addresses **
. Tracking referring URL's - HTTP_REFERER support
. Performing server-side includes without needing server support for it
. Ability to not log accesses from certain domains (ie. your own)
. Easily create and display forms
. Ability to use form information in following documents

Here is what you don't need to use these tools:

. You do not need root access - install in your ~/public_html dir
. You do not need server-side includes enabled in your server
. You do not need access to Perl or Tcl or any other script interpreter
. You do not need access to the httpd log files

The only requirement for these tools to work is that you have
the ability to execute your own cgi programs.  Ask your system
administrator if you are not sure what this means.

The tools also allow you to implement a guestbook or any other
form that needs to write information and display it to users
later in about 2 minutes.

The tools are in the public domain distributed under the GNU
Public License.  Yes, that means they are free!

For a complete demonstration of these tools, point your browser
at: http://www.io.org/~rasmus

--
Rasmus Lerdorf
rasmus@io.org
http://www.io.org/~rasmus

C API for the Web

void Cos(void) {
    Stack *s;
    char temp[64];

    s = Pop();
    if(!s) {
        Error("Stack error in cos");
        return;
    }
    sprintf(temp,"%f",cos(s->douval));
    Push(temp,DNUMBER);
}

And you could then use it like this:

<html><head><title>Cos Example</title></head>
<body><h1>Cos Example</h1>
<?echo Cos($input)>
</body></html>

✔ engine improvements

  • 100%+ performance gain on most real-world applications
  • Lower memory usage
  • Native thread local storage

✔ Persistent secondary file-based cache for OPCache

; --enable-opcache-file
; php.ini
opcache.file_cache=/var/tmp

; php-cli.ini
opcache.enable_cli=1
opcache.file_cache=/var/tmp
opcache.file_cache_only=1
$ time composer >/dev/null
real	0m0.040s
user	0m0.032s
sys	0m0.004s

$ time composer >/dev/null
real	0m0.019s
user	0m0.016s
sys	0m0.000s

$ time php -d opcache.enable=0 /usr/local/bin/composer >/dev/null
real	0m0.033s
user	0m0.032s
sys	0m0.000s
/var/tmp
├── 7eeb6fe88104116c27c5650ddd83abf0
│   └── usr
│       └── local
│           └── bin
│               └── composer.bin
└── 7eeb6fe88104116c27c5650ddd83abf0phar:
    └── usr
        └── local
            └── bin
                └── composer
                    ├── bin
                    │   └── composer.bin
                    ├── src
                    │   ├── bootstrap.php.bin
                    │   └── Composer
                    │       ├── Command
                    │       │   ├── AboutCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── ArchiveCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── ClearCacheCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── Command.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── ConfigCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── CreateProjectCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── DependsCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── DiagnoseCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── DumpAutoloadCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── GlobalCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── Helper
                    │       │   │   └── DialogHelper.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── HomeCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── InitCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── InstallCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── LicensesCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── RemoveCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── RequireCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── RunScriptCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── SearchCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── SelfUpdateCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── ShowCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── StatusCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── UpdateCommand.php.bin
                    │       │   └── ValidateCommand.php.bin
                    │       ├── Composer.php.bin
                    │       ├── Console
                    │       │   └── Application.php.bin
                    │       ├── Factory.php.bin
                    │       ├── IO
                    │       │   ├── BaseIO.php.bin
                    │       │   ├── ConsoleIO.php.bin
                    │       │   └── IOInterface.php.bin
                    │       ├── Package
                    │       │   ├── BasePackage.php.bin
                    │       │   └── PackageInterface.php.bin
                    │       ├── Script
                    │       │   └── ScriptEvents.php.bin
                    │       └── Util
                    │           └── ErrorHandler.php.bin
                    └── vendor
                        ├── autoload.php.bin
                        ├── composer
                        │   ├── autoload_classmap.php.bin
                        │   ├── autoload_namespaces.php.bin
                        │   ├── autoload_psr4.php.bin
                        │   ├── autoload_real.php.bin
                        │   └── ClassLoader.php.bin
                        └── symfony
                            └── console
                                └── Symfony
                                    └── Component
                                        └── Console
                                            ├── Application.php.bin
                                            ├── Command
                                            │   ├── Command.php.bin
                                            │   ├── HelpCommand.php.bin
                                            │   └── ListCommand.php.bin
                                            ├── Descriptor
                                            │   ├── ApplicationDescription.php.bin
                                            │   ├── DescriptorInterface.php.bin
                                            │   ├── Descriptor.php.bin
                                            │   ├── JsonDescriptor.php.bin
                                            │   ├── MarkdownDescriptor.php.bin
                                            │   ├── TextDescriptor.php.bin
                                            │   └── XmlDescriptor.php.bin
                                            ├── Formatter
                                            │   ├── OutputFormatterInterface.php.bin
                                            │   ├── OutputFormatter.php.bin
                                            │   ├── OutputFormatterStyleInterface.php.bin
                                            │   ├── OutputFormatterStyle.php.bin
                                            │   └── OutputFormatterStyleStack.php.bin
                                            ├── Helper
                                            │   ├── DebugFormatterHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── DescriptorHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── DialogHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── FormatterHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── HelperInterface.php.bin
                                            │   ├── Helper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── HelperSet.php.bin
                                            │   ├── InputAwareHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── ProcessHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── ProgressHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── QuestionHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── TableHelper.php.bin
                                            │   ├── Table.php.bin
                                            │   └── TableStyle.php.bin
                                            ├── Input
                                            │   ├── ArgvInput.php.bin
                                            │   ├── ArrayInput.php.bin
                                            │   ├── InputArgument.php.bin
                                            │   ├── InputAwareInterface.php.bin
                                            │   ├── InputDefinition.php.bin
                                            │   ├── InputInterface.php.bin
                                            │   ├── InputOption.php.bin
                                            │   └── Input.php.bin
                                            └── Output
                                                ├── ConsoleOutputInterface.php.bin
                                                ├── ConsoleOutput.php.bin
                                                ├── NullOutput.php.bin
                                                ├── OutputInterface.php.bin
                                                ├── Output.php.bin
                                                └── StreamOutput.php.bin

32 directories, 87 files

✔ Abstract Syntax Tree!!

echo substr("abc", [1,2]);
% phan -a test.php
AST_STMT_LIST @ 1
    0: AST_STMT_LIST @ 2
        0: AST_ECHO @ 2
            0: AST_CALL @ 2
                0: AST_NAME @ 2
                    flags: NAME_NOT_FQ (1)
                    0: "substr"
                1: AST_ARG_LIST @ 2
                    0: "abc"
                    1: AST_ARRAY @ 2
                        0: AST_ARRAY_ELEM @ 2
                            flags: 0
                            0: 1
                            1: null
                        1: AST_ARRAY_ELEM @ 2
                            flags: 0
                            0: 2
                            1: null
% phan -a test.php
test.php:2 TypeError arg#2(start) is int[] but substr() takes int

✔ Return Types

function get_config(): array {
    return 42;
}
get_config();

// Catchable fatal error: Return value of get_config() must
//  be of the type array, integer returned in %s on line %d

✔ Coercive Scalar Types

function logmsg(string $msg, int $level, float $severity) {
    var_dump($msg);      // string(1) "1"
    var_dump($level);    // int(2)
    var_dump($severity); // float(3)
}
logmsg(1, "2.5", 3);

✔ Strict Scalar Types

declare(strict_types=1);

logmsg(1, "2.5", 3);
Fatal error: Argument 1 passed to logmsg() must be of the 
type string, integer given

✔ Anonymous Classes

return new class($controller) implements Page {
    public function __construct($controller) {
        /* ... */
    }
    /* ... */
};

class MyObject extends MyStuff {
    public function getInterface() {
        return new class implements MyInterface {
            /* ... */
        };
    }
}

✔ Null Coalesce Operator

$a = NULL;
$b = 1;
$c = 2;

echo $a ?? $b; // 1
echo $c ?? $b; // 2
echo $a ?? $b ?? $c; // 1
echo $a ?? $x ?? $c; // 2

✔ Spaceship Operator

|=|  Tie Fighter
k=k  Tie Interceptor
<==> Tie Bomber  
<=>  Tie Advanced X1 ✔
function cmp_php5($a, $b) {
    return ($a < $b) ? -1 : (($a >$b) ? 1 : 0);
}

function cmp_php7($a, $b) {
    return $a <=> $b;
}

✔ Exceptions on Fatals

function call_method($obj) {
    $obj->method();
}

call_method(null);
// Fatal error: Call to a member function method() on a non-object
try {
    call_method(null);
} catch (EngineException $e) {
    echo "Exception: {$e->getMessage()}\n";
}
// Exception: Call to a member function method() on a non-object

✔ Zero-cost Assertions

function test($arg) {
    assert($arg > 20 && $arg < 110, "$arg is invalid");
}
ini_set('zend.assertions',0); test(16);
ini_set('zend.assertions',1); test(17);
ini_set('assert.exception',1); test(18);
Warning: assert(): 17 is invalid failed in /home/rasmus/assert.php on line 3
Fatal error: Uncaught AssertionError: 18 is invalid in /home/rasmus/assert.php:3
Stack trace:
#0 /home/rasmus/assert.php(3): assert(false, '18 is invalid')
#1 /home/rasmus/assert.php(13): test(18)
#2 {main}
  thrown in /home/rasmus/assert.php on line 3		
; Completely skip compiling assert() calls
; (can only be set in php.ini)
zend.assertions = -1

✔ Added Closure::call()

$f = function () {
    return $this->n;
};
class MyClass {
    private $n = 42;
}
$myC = new MyClass;
$c = $f->bindTo($myC, "MyClass");
$c();
$f = function () {
    return $this->n;
};
class MyClass {
    private $n = 42;
}
$myC = new MyClass;
$f->call($myC);

✔ Removal of many deprecated features
     (Your PHP4 code will break!)

- ext/ereg (use ext/pcre instead)
- preg_replace() eval modifier (use preg_replace_callback() instead)
- ext/mysql (use ext/mysqli or ext/pdo_mysql instead)
- Assignment of new by reference
- Scoped calls of non-static methods from incompatible $this context

- dl() in php-fpm
- set_magic_quotes_runtime() and magic_quotes_runtime()
- set_socket_blocking() (use stream_set_blocking() instead)
- mcrypt_generic_end() (use mcrypt_generic_deinit() instead)
- mcrypt_ecb, mcrypt_cbc, mcrypt_cfb and mcrypt_ofb 
  (use mcrypt_encrypt() and mcrypt_decrypt() instead)
- datefmt_set_timezone_id() and IntlDateFormatter::setTimeZoneID() 
  (use datefmt_set_timezone() or IntlDateFormatter::setTimeZone() instead)

- xsl.security_prefs (use XsltProcessor::setSecurityPrefs() instead)
- iconv.input_encoding, iconv.output_encoding, iconv.internal_encoding,
  mbstring.http_input, mbstring.http_output and mbstring.internal_encoding
  (use php.input_encoding, php.internal_encoding and php.output_encoding instead)

- $is_dst parameter of the mktime() and gmmktime() functions
- # style comments in ini files (use ; style comments instead)
- String category names in setlocale() (use LC_* constants instead)
- Unsafe curl file uploads (use CurlFile instead)
- PDO::PGSQL_ATTR_DISABLE_NATIVE_PREPARED_STATEMENT driver option 
  (use PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES instead)
- CN_match and SNI_server_name stream context option (use peer_name instead)

✔ New reserved words:

  • bool
  • int
  • float
  • string
  • null
  • false
  • true
  • resource
  • object
  • mixed
  • numeric

✔ 64-bit integer support on Windows

✔ Cleanup edge-case integer overflow/underflow

✔ Support for strings with length >= 2^31 bytes in 64 bit builds.

✔ Parse error on invalid numeric literals

$mask = 0855;  // Parse error: Invalid numeric literal

✔ Uniform variable syntax

// left-to-right
$this->$belongs_to['column']
// vs.
$this->{$belongs_to['column']}

// support missing combinations of operations
$foo()['bar']()
[$obj1, $obj2][0]->prop
getStr(){0}
 
// support nested ::
$foo['bar']::$baz
$foo::$bar::$baz
$foo->bar()::baz()
 
// support nested ()
foo()()
$foo->bar()()
Foo::bar()()
$foo()()
 
// support operations on arbitrary (...) expressions
(...)['foo']
(...)->foo
(...)->foo()
(...)::$foo
(...)::foo()
(...)()
 
// two more practical examples for the last point
(function() { ... })()
($obj->closure)()
 
// support all operations on dereferencable scalars
// (not very useful)
"string"->toLower()
[$obj, 'method']()
'Foo'::$bar
echo preg_replace('/:-:(.*?):-:/e', '$this->pres->\\1', $text);
echo preg_replace_callback(
    '/:-:(.*?):-:/', 
    function($matches) {
      return $this->pres->$matches[1]; // Oops!
    },
    $text);
% phan -b display.php
Files scanned: 1
Time:		0.13s
Classes:	8
Methods:	55
Functions:	5
Closures:	5
Traits:		0
Conditionals:	307
Issues found:	1

display.php:416 CompatError expression may not be PHP 7 compatible
echo preg_replace_callback(
    '/:-:(.*?):-:/', 
    function($matches) {
      return $this->pres->{$matches[1]}; // Ok
    },
    $text);

✔ Unicode Codepoint Escape Syntax

echo "\u{202E}Right-to-left text";

echo "\u{1F602}";
‮Right-to-left text😂		

✔ ICU IntlChar class added to intl extension

GA release scheduled for October 2015

Time and number of machine instructions for 100 requests against Wordpress-3.6.0 front page

(click on legend items to show/hide data sets)

  • zval size reduced from 24 to 16 bytes
  • Hashtable size reduced from 72 to 56 bytes
  • Hashtable bucket size reduced from 72 to 32 bytes
  • Immutable array optimization
$a = [];
for($i=0; $i < 100000;$i++) $a[] = ['abc'];
echo memory_get_usage(true);
// PHP 5.x  43M
// PHP 7.0  6M
  • Much more cpu cache friendly
  • New memory allocator similar to jemalloc
  • Faster hashtable iteration API
  • Array duplication optimization
  • PCRE JIT enabled by default
  • Fast ZPP (ZendParseParameters) implementation
  • Faster stack-allocated zvals (instead of heap)
  • Optimized VM calling
  • Global register variables with gcc 4.8+
  • plus hundreds of micro-optimizations

JIT?

Lies, damn lies and benchmarks

Test Box Specs


  • Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H i7-4771 4 cores @ 3.50GHz w/ 16G of Ram @ 1600MHz
  • Hyperthreading enabled for a total of 8 virtual cores
  • Toshiba THNSNHH256GBST SSD
  • Linux debian 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt9-2 (2015-04-13) x86_64 GNU/Linux
  • MySQL 5.6.24
  • nginx-1.6.2 + php-fpm for all tests unless indicated otherwise
  • Quiet local 100Mbps network
  • siege benchmark tool run from a separate machine

All versions of PHP compiled locally using gcc-4.9.2 -O2

configure flags

./configure --disable-debug       --with-apxs2=/usr/bin/apxs2 \
            --enable-zend-signals --with-gd \
            --without-pear        --with-jpeg-dir=/usr \
            --with-png-dir=/usr   --with-vpx-dir=/usr \
            --with-t1lib=/usr     --with-freetype-dir=/usr \
            --enable-exif         --enable-gd-native-ttf \
            --with-zlib           --with-mysql=/usr \
            --with-gmp            --with-zlib-dir=/usr \
            --with-gettext        --with-kerberos \
            --with-imap-ssl       --with-mcrypt=/usr/local \
            --with-iconv          --enable-sockets \
            --with-openssl        --with-pspell \
            --with-pdo-sqlite     --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd \
            --enable-soap         --enable-xmlreader \
            --enable-phar=shared  --with-xsl \
            --enable-ftp          --enable-cgi \
            --with-curl=/usr      --with-tidy \
            --with-xmlrpc         --enable-mbstring \
            --enable-sysvsem      --enable-sysvshm \
            --enable-shmop        --with-readline \
            --enable-pcntl        --enable-fpm \
            --enable-intl         --enable-zip \
            --with-imap           --with-mysqli=mysqlnd \
            --enable-calendar     --prefix=/usr/local \
            --with-mysql-sock=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock \
            --with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc/php7/conf.d \
            --with-config-file-path=/etc/php7

php.ini

[PHP]
zend.multibyte=On
date.timezone="America/Los_Angeles"
display_startup_errors=On
zend.enable_gc=Off
include_path="/usr/local/lib/php"
default_charset="UTF-8"
error_reporting=-1

variables_order=GPCS
sendmail_path=""

max_execution_time=60
memory_limit=512M
post_max_size=1024M
cgi.force_redirect=0
cgi.fix_pathinfo=1

magic_quotes=0
magic_quotes_gpc=0
user_ini.filename=
realpath_cache_size=2M
cgi.check_shebang_line=0

max_input_vars=1000
max_file_uploads=50

zend_extension=opcache.so
opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.revalidate_freq=60
opcache.fast_shutdown=1
opcache.enable_cli=1

php-fpm.d/www.conf

[www]
user = www-data
group = www-data
listen = /var/run/php-fpm.sock
listen.owner = www-data
listen.group = www-data
listen.mode = 0660

pm = static
pm.max_children = 10
pm.status_path = /status
ping.path = /ping
ping.response = pong

nginx.conf

user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;

events {
        worker_connections 768;
}

http {
        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        gzip on;
        gzip_disable "msie6";

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

php.conf

location ~ \.php {
  include                  fastcgi_params;
  fastcgi_keep_conn        on;
  fastcgi_index            index.php;
  fastcgi_split_path_info  ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
  fastcgi_param PATH_INFO  $fastcgi_path_info;
  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
  fastcgi_pass             unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
}

hhvm.conf

location ~ \.php$ {
  include           fastcgi_params;
  fastcgi_keep_conn on;
  fastcgi_pass      unix:/var/run/hhvm/server.sock;
  fastcgi_index     index.php;
  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

sites-enabled/wordpress

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name wordpress;
    root /var/www/wordpress;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/wordpress-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/wordpress-error.log;

    location / {
        index     index.html index.htm index.php;
        autoindex on;
    }

    location ~ /\.  { return 403; }

    include backend.conf;
}

HipHop VM 3.7.0 (rel) from http://dl.hhvm.com/ubuntu

server.ini

pid = /var/run/hhvm/pid
hhvm.server.file_socket = /var/run/hhvm/server.sock
hhvm.server.type = fastcgi
hhvm.server.default_document = index.php
hhvm.log.use_log_file = true
hhvm.log.file = /var/log/hhvm/error.log
hhvm.repo.central.path = /var/run/hhvm/hhvm.hhbc

php.ini

session.save_handler = files
session.save_path = /var/lib/php5
session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440

hhvm.log.level = Warning
hhvm.log.always_log_unhandled_exceptions = true
hhvm.log.runtime_error_reporting_level = 8191
hhvm.mysql.typed_results = false

GCC Feedback-Directed Optimization (FDO)

$ make clean
$ make -j8 prof-gen
...
$ sapi/cgi/php-cgi -T 1000 /var/www/wordpress/index.php > /dev/null
$ make prof-clean
$ make -j8 prof-use

Had to fix one line of code in the Avalon database library:

diff --git a/database/model.php b/database/model.php
index 6c5f7da..c93e726 100644
--- a/database/model.php
+++ b/database/model.php
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ public function __get($var) {
           $belongs_to['column'] = $var . '_id';
       }
       $model = $belongs_to['model'];
-      return $this->$var = $model::find($belongs_to['foreign_key'], $this->$belongs_to['column']);
+      return $this->$var = $model::find($belongs_to['foreign_key'], $this->{$belongs_to['column']});
   } else {
       $val = $this->$var;

Help us test!

It is really easy!

Install Vagrant and Virtualbox

Then:

$ git clone https://github.com/rlerdorf/php7dev.git

$ cd php7dev

$ vagrant up
... (takes a bit - it is downloading 1.5G)

$ vagrant ssh

It will NAT, DHCP and also has a fixed address of 192.168.7.7

http://192.168.7.7/ will show you the PHP 7 phpinfo() page

Now you have a working Rasmus-approved dev box on your network

Switching PHP versions is trivial

vagrant@php7dev:~$ newphp 56
Activating PHP 5.6.6-dev and restarting php-fpm

vagrant@php7dev:~$ newphp 7 debug
Activating PHP 7.0.0-dev and restarting php-fpm

20 pre-compiled versions

/usr/local/php53            /usr/local/php54-zts        /usr/local/php56-debug-zts
/usr/local/php53-debug      /usr/local/php55            /usr/local/php56-zts
/usr/local/php53-debug-zts  /usr/local/php55-debug      /usr/local/php70
/usr/local/php53-zts        /usr/local/php55-debug-zts  /usr/local/php70-debug
/usr/local/php54            /usr/local/php55-zts        /usr/local/php70-debug-zts
/usr/local/php54-debug      /usr/local/php56            /usr/local/php70-zts
/usr/local/php54-debug-zts  /usr/local/php56-debug

Build any version

$ makephp 7
Build log in /tmp/build.log
Building PHP 7.0
configuring...
compiling...
installing...
done
Building PHP 7.0-debug
configuring...
compiling...
installing...
done

or manually

$ cd php-src
$ git checkout PHP-5.6
$ git pull -r
$ make distclean
$ ./buildconf -f
$ ./cn56
$ make
$ sudo make install
github.com/rlerdorf/php7dev

Report Bugs

Useful bug reports, please!