gophper

Run PHP from Go with no cgo.

gophper runs php-src, compiled to WebAssembly, on wazero. It is the real Zend Engine, so the language behaves exactly like PHP.

The PHP binaries come from gophper-wasm, a Go module that embeds them. Its README lists the versions of PHP and of every library inside. Only Go is needed, with no C compiler.

go get github.com/mpyw/gophper

engine, err := gophper.NewEngine(ctx, gophper.DefaultEngineConfig())
if err != nil {
	return err
}
defer engine.Close(ctx)

code, err := engine.RunCLI(ctx, gophper.Options{
	Args:   []string{"-r", "echo 1 + 1;"},
	Stdout: os.Stdout,
	Stderr: os.Stderr,
})

To serve a PHP app from your own http.Server:

h, err := server.NewHTTPHandler(engine, server.HTTPConfig{Root: "public"})
if err != nil {
	return err
}
defer h.Close()
return http.ListenAndServe("127.0.0.1:8080", h)

PHP can call functions written in Go:

code, err := engine.RunCLI(ctx, gophper.Options{
	Args:   []string{"-r", `echo go_add(20, 22), "\n";`},
	Stdout: os.Stdout,
	Functions: map[string]gophper.Function{
		"go_add": func(ctx context.Context, args []any) (any, error) {
			return args[0].(int64) + args[1].(int64), nil
		},
	},
})

Install with mise, or see Install for other ways:

mise use -g github:mpyw/gophper

Run PHP:

gophper php -r 'echo "Hello from ", PHP_OS, "\n";'

Hello from WASI

Serve a Laravel app over HTTP, from the project directory:

cd my-app
gophper serve --root public

Or run a FastCGI server, like php-fpm, for nginx or Caddy:

gophper fcgi --listen unix:/run/gophper.sock --mount /var/www -d max_execution_time=30

examples/ is a Go module of its own. It uses the gophper in this repository.

• Library: Packages, Engine, Go functions, Sandbox, Compile cache
• Tool: Install, Commands, Global options, gophper php, gophper serve, gophper fcgi, Options for serve and fcgi
• Both: Extensions, What works, Windows

HTTPConfig and FastCGIConfig have the same settings as the serve and fcgi options.

Extensions load from EngineConfig.ExtensionDir. See Extensions.

Options.Functions maps PHP function names to Go functions. Values convert like this, in both directions:

PHP gets nothing of the host unless Options says so:

DefaultEngineConfig keeps a per-user cache directory. It holds wazero's compiled code, and the PHP binaries decompressed. With the cache, gophper php -r 'echo 1;' takes about 0.18 seconds. Most of it is wazero validating the 16 MB binary, which it does even with the cache.

Releases cover macOS, Linux and Windows, each on amd64 and arm64.

gophper --version names what is inside too. Put it in a bug report:

$ gophper --version
gophper version v0.1.0 (PHP 8.6.0RC3, gophper-wasm v0.2.3, wazero v1.12.0, go1.27.1 darwin/arm64)

These go before the subcommand:

gophper --extension-dir DIR serve

Each option of every command also reads an environment variable: GOPHPER_ and its name in upper snake case. For example, --max-wait-time reads GOPHPER_MAX_WAIT_TIME.

The CLI mounts the host file system at /. It starts in the current directory.

gophper serve --root public --listen 127.0.0.1:8080

Workers serve the requests, as php-fpm's children do. Each is a long-lived PHP instance that serves one request at a time. PHP resets its state between them.

Requests are routed like Caddy's php_server:

For a Laravel-style layout, run from the project directory. --mount defaults to the current directory, so PHP reaches vendor/ and storage/ outside public/. examples/todos is a Laravel 13 app that runs this way.

gophper fcgi --listen unix:/run/gophper.sock --mount /var/www -d max_execution_time=30

The web server chooses the script, as with php-fpm.

nginx:

location ~ \.php(/|$) {
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/gophper.sock;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
}

Caddy:

example.com {
	root * /var/www/public
	php_fastcgi unix//run/gophper.sock
	file_server
}

Extensions load at runtime, as .so files do in native PHP. Each one is a WebAssembly module, so one file runs on every platform.

gophper comes with some extensions. gophper extension install writes them to the extension directory:

gophper --extension-dir ./extensions extension install dl_test
gophper --extension-dir ./extensions php -d extension=dl_test -r 'echo dl_test_test2("ext"), "\n";'

extensions/dl_test.so
Hello ext

extension=<name> in php.ini, -d extension=<name>, and dl("<name>.so") all work. Your own extensions go in the same directory.

These come with gophper:

gophper runs on Windows too. These differ from Unix:

On an Apple Silicon Mac:

gophper is about 3.3 times slower. There is no JIT.

A small JSON page with gophper serve, measured with ab:

Laravel 13's welcome page with gophper serve, one request at a time:

gophper's own code is under the MIT License.

A gophper binary also contains PHP and the libraries built into it, from gophper-wasm, and Go modules. Each keeps its own license. gophper licenses prints them all, with the license of each Go module linked in.

The mascot shows a Go gopher riding an elephant in the style of PHP's ElePHPant. The Go gopher was designed by Renée French, under CC BY 4.0. The ElePHPant was designed by Vincent Pontier.