A lightweight, portable, embeddable implementation of PHP written in C.

PH7 is an in-process software library that implements a highly-efficient embeddable bytecode compiler and virtual machine for the PHP programming language. It allows host applications to compile and execute PHP scripts in-process, making PH7 to PHP what SQLite is to SQL.

This is a refactored version of the original PH7 repository, revived after years of dormancy with modern development practices and a focus on reliability.

• Lightweight: Keep the engine suitable for embedded systems and resource-constrained environments
• Portable: Maintain compatibility across platforms with minimal dependencies
• Reliable: Introduce extensive testing and state-of-the-art continuous integration
• Compatible: Refactor PH7's original idiosyncrasies to be more compatible with official PHP.

• PHP 5.3 Constructs: Support for heredoc, nowdoc, goto, classes, anonymous functions, closures, and more

• Extended Language Features:

  • Function & Method Overloading
  • Full Type Hinting
  • Comma expressions
  • String comparison operators (eq and ne)
  • Improved operator precedence
  • Powerful object-oriented subsystem
  • Complex expressions as default function argument values
  • 64-bit integer arithmetic on all platforms
  • Native UTF-8 support

• Embeddable Architecture:

  • Written in ANSI C
  • Thread-safe and fully reentrant
  • Multiple interpreter states can coexist without interference

• Rich Built-in Library (470+ functions):

  • XML parser with namespace support
  • INI processor
  • CSV reader/writer
  • UTF-8 encoder/decoder
  • ZIP archive extractor
  • JSON encoder/decoder
  • Random number/string generator
  • Native File I/O for Windows and UNIX

make

The default build produces executables in build/x86_64-linux-gnu/ (or your platform's equivalent).

#include "src/ph7/ph7.h"
#include <stdio.h>

static int output_consumer(const void *pOutput, unsigned int nLen, void *pUserData) {
    printf("%.*s", nLen, (const char *)pOutput);
    return PH7_OK;
}

int main(void) {
    ph7 *pEngine;
    ph7_vm *pVm;
    const char *code = "<?php echo 'Hello, World!'; ?>";
    
    // Initialize engine
    ph7_init(&pEngine);
    
    // Compile PHP code
    ph7_compile_v2(pEngine, code, -1, &pVm, 0);
    
    // Configure output handler
    ph7_vm_config(pVm, PH7_VM_CONFIG_OUTPUT, output_consumer, 0);
    
    // Execute
    ph7_vm_exec(pVm, 0);
    
    // Cleanup
    ph7_vm_release(pVm);
    ph7_release(pEngine);
    
    return 0;
}

Compile with:

make

The project includes a standalone PHP interpreter:

# Run a PHP file
./build/x86_64-linux-gnu/phl examples/hello_world.php

# With script arguments
./build/x86_64-linux-gnu/phl script.php arg1 arg2

See the examples/ directory for more usage examples:

• ph7_intro.c - Basic embedding example
• ph7_cgi.c - CGI-style execution
• ph7_func_intro.c - Registering C functions
• ph7_const_intro.c - Defining constants

(Testing infrastructure is being developed as part of this refactor)

# Run tests
make test

• Original API Documentation
• Embedding Guide
• Foreign Function Interface

PH7 is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License. See LICENSES/ for details.

PH7 was originally developed in 2011 for embedded router web interfaces, providing a dynamic scripting environment in resource-constrained devices. This refactored version aims to modernize the codebase while preserving its lightweight, embeddable nature.

Contributions are welcome! This refactor focuses on:

• Improving test coverage
• Setting up modern CI/CD pipelines
• Maintaining backward compatibility
• Keeping the codebase portable and lightweight

This refactored version maintains API compatibility with the original PH7 while introducing:

• Modern build system improvements
• Comprehensive test suite
• Continuous integration
• Better documentation
• Active maintenance

Note: For the historical README, see OLDREADME.md.