1. cPanel & WHM Documentation
  2. EasyApache4
  3. PHP
  4. PHP Options
ea4 phpoptions

PHP Options

Last modified: September 26, 2024

Overview

This document lists the PHP options available in EasyApache 4. Select the PHP extensions that you wish to use in WHM’s EasyApache 4 interface (WHM » Home » Software » EasyApache 4) or use your package manager. For more information about how to install a PHP package, read our How to Locate and Install a PHP Version or Extension documentation.

EasyApache 4 adheres to the php.net supported versions timeline. The profiles that we supply in WHM’s EasyApache 4 interface (WHM » Home » Software » EasyApache 4) only provide PHP versions that php.net currently supports.

  • If your server runs AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux™, you cannot use PHP 7.1 or earlier.
  • If your server runs Ubuntu®, you cannot use PHP 7.2 or earlier.
  • Packages for unsupported versions of PHP will remain on the WebPros International, LLC mirrors and servers, but we will not provide any further updates.
Note:

To determine which package installs a specific extension, use the repoquery command. Use the following command to run the query, where ea-php81-php-mysqli represents the extension that you wish to install:

repoquery -q -\-whatprovides 'ea-php81-php-mysqli' | sort -V | tail -1

Current PHP versions

Current versions of PHP include PHP versions 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3. Unless otherwise noted, the following options support all current versions of PHP.

Opcode cachers

An opcode cacher improves the efficiency of your PHP applications but also uses more memory. EasyApache 4 currently only supports the OPCache opcode cacher.

Warning:
  • Opcode caching programs are not compatible with the suPHP or CGI PHP handlers. The caching program either does not function, or functions incorrectly.
  • The system does not automatically configure OPCache. If you do not manually configure OPCache after you install it, it will provide no benefits.

PHP loaders or encoders

A PHP loader allows PHP to execute encoded applications. This ensures that others cannot access your code. You can use one of the following options to install a PHP loader on your web server:

PHP extensions

PHP provides many built-in extensions. You can use these extensions to add functionality to your PHP applications or your web server.

Extension Description
argon2 Argon2 password hashing algorithm.
bcmath Arbitrary precision mathematics. The Default profile includes this extension.
bz2 Read and write bzip2 (.bz2) compressed files.
calendar Convert between different calendar formats. The Default profile includes this extension.
ctype Check whether a character is a certain character class.
curl Support for the Client URL library (cURL) . The Default profile includes this extension.
Note:
You must install the mod_http2 Apache module for HTTP/2 support.
date Get the server date and time.
dba Access Berkeley DB-style databases.
dbg PHP debugger.
dom Use the DOM API with PHP.
enchant PHP binding for the Enchant spelling library.
exif Parse image metadata.
fileinfo Detect a file’s content type and encoding.
filter Filter data by validating or sanitizing.
fpm FastCGI Process Manager. The Default profile includes this extension.
ftp FTP (File Transfer Protocol) support. The Default profile includes this extension.
gd Create and manipulate image files. The Default profile includes this extension.
Note:

This extension supports the AVIF image format on PHP version 8.1 and higher. This applies to servers that run AlmaLinux 8 or higher, RockyLinux 8 or higher, or Ubuntu® 22.04 or higher.
gettext Native language support API.
gmp Use GNU multiple precision library to work with arbitrary-length integers.
hash Message digest (hash) engine.
iconv Character set conversion. The Default profile includes this extension.
imap Mail functions (SMTP, POP3, IMAP). The Default profile includes this extension. This extension conflicts with the recode extension.
intl Internationalization wrapper for the ICU library.
json JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). PHP 8.0 and later include JSON in the Core module.
ldap Lightweight directory access protocol.
libxml XML library for PHP.
litespeed Litespeed SAPI. The Default profile includes this extension.
mbregex Disable regular expression functions with multibyte character support.
mbstring Enhanced Chinese, Japanese, and other language support. The Default profile includes this extension.
mcrypt Encryption support. The Default profile includes this extension. In PHP 7.2 and later, the mcrypt module only exists as a PECL extension.
mhash Interface for the Mhash library.
mysqli MySQL improved database access.
mysqlnd MySQL native driver. The Default profile includes this extension. The mysqlnd module does not support old pre-MySQL 4.1 passwords.
odbc Unified ODBC database support.
openssl OpenSSL library interface.
pcntl Unix-style process control.
pcre Perl-compatible regular expressions.
Note:
You cannot use PCRE on a system that runs CentOS 7.
pdo PHP Data Objects (PDO) database support. The Default profile includes this extension.
pdo mysql PDO MySQL support.
pdo_odbc PDO ODBC support.
pdo_pgsql PDO PostgreSQL support.
pdo_sqlite Enable access to SQLite 3 databases.
pgsql PostgreSQL DB support.
phar Disable Phar functionality. The Default profile includes this extension.
posix Extended POSIX support. The Default profile includes this extension.
pspell Check the spelling of a word and offer suggestions.
readline Interface for the GNU Readline library.
reflection Reverse-engineer classes, interfaces, functions, methods, and extensions.
session Session support for PHP.
shmop Allow PHP to read, write, create, and delete Unix shared-memory segments.
simplexml SimpleXML support.
snmp SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) support.
soap SOAP server and client support.
sockets Raw socket support. The Default profile includes this extension.
sodium The Sodium encryption library. This extension is only available for PHP 7.4 and later.
spl Standard PHP library.
sqlite3 SQLite version 3 database support.
sysvmsg Enable System V messages support.
sysvsem Enable System V semaphore support .
sysvshm Enable System V shared memory support.
tidy Tidy HTML formatter.
tokenizer PHP tokenizer functionality.
xml XML support. The Default profile includes this extension.
xmlreader XML Pull parser.
xmlwriter XML writer extension.
xsl XSL support.
zip Read and write zip archives. The Default profile includes this extension.
zlib Read and write gzip archives.

Legacy PHP versions

Legacy versions of PHP include PHP versions 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, and 8.0.

Unless otherwise noted, the following options support all legacy versions of PHP.

Opcode cachers for legacy PHP versions

An opcode cacher improves the efficiency of your PHP applications but also uses more memory.

EasyApache 4 currently only supports the OPCache opcode cacher.

Warning:
  • Opcode caching programs are not compatible with the suPHP or CGI PHP handlers. The caching program either does not function, or functions incorrectly.
  • The system does not automatically configure OPCache. If you do not manually configure OPCache after you install it, it will provide no benefits.

PHP loaders or encoders for legacy PHP versions

A PHP loader allows PHP to execute encoded applications. This ensures that others cannot access your code. You can use one of the following options to install a PHP loader on your web server:

  • SourceGuardian Loader
  • ionCube Loader
    Note:
    • You cannot use ionCube Loader 4 with PHP version 7.0 or later.
    • You cannot use ionCube Loader 5 with PHP version 7.0 or later.
    • You cannot use ionCube Loader 6 with PHP version 7.1 or later.
    • You can only use ionCube 11 with PHP 7.4.
  • Zen Guard Loader — You cannot use Zend Guard Loader with PHP version 7.0 or later.
Note:
  • The Apache information page incorrectly displays Zend Guard Loader as version 3.3. Your version of PHP determines the version of Zend Guard Loader that the system actually uses.
    • If you use PHP versions 5.5 or 5.6, EasyApache uses Zend Guard Loader version 7.0.
    • If you use PHP version 5.4, EasyApache uses Zend Guard Loader version 6.0.
  • The IonCube configuration file name varies based on the version of PHP that you use.
    • If you use PHP versions 5.4 or 5.5, IonCube uses the the ioncube.ini file.
    • If you use PHP version 5.6, IonCube uses the 01-ioncube.ini file.
  • You cannot use multiple versions of ionCube simultaneously.

PHP extensions for legacy PHP versions

PHP provides many built-in extensions. You can use these extensions to add functionality to your PHP applications or your web server.

Extension Description
argon2 Argon2 password hashing algorithm. This extension is only available for PHP 7.2 and later.
bcmath Arbitrary precision mathematics. The Default profile includes this extension.
bz2 Read and write bzip2 (.bz2) compressed files.
calendar Convert between different calendar formats. The Default profile includes this extension.
ctype Check whether a character is a certain character class.
curl Support for the Client URL library (cURL) . The Default profile includes this extension.
Note:
You must install the mod_http2 Apache module for HTTP/2 support.
date Get the server date and time.
dba Access Berkeley DB-style databases.
dbg PHP debugger. This extension is only available in PHP 7.0 and later.
dom Use the DOM API with PHP.
enchant PHP binding for the Enchant spelling library.
exif Parse image metadata.
fileinfo Detect a file’s content type and encoding.
filter Filter data by validating or sanitizing.
fpm FastCGI Process Manager. The Default profile includes this extension.
ftp FTP (File Transfer Protocol) support. The Default profile includes this extension.
gd Create and manipulate image files. The Default profile includes this extension.
gettext Native language support API.
gmp Use GNU multiple precision library to work with arbitrary-length integers.
hash Message digest (hash) engine.
iconv Character set conversion. The Default profile includes this extension.
imap Mail functions (SMTP, POP3, IMAP). The Default profile includes this extension. This extension conflicts with the recode extension.
intl Internationalization wrapper for the ICU library.
json JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). PHP 8.0 and later include JSON in the Core module.
ldap Lightweight directory access protocol.
libxml XML library for PHP.
litespeed Litespeed SAPI. The Default profile includes this extension.
mbregex Disable regular expression functions with multibyte character support.
mbstring Enhanced Chinese, Japanese, and other language support. The Default profile includes this extension.
mcrypt Encryption support. The Default profile includes this extension. In PHP 7.2 and later, the mcrypt module only exists as a PECL extension.
mhash Interface for the Mhash library.
mssql MSSQL® database access. This extension is only available in PHP 5.6 and earlier.
mysql The original MySQL API database access. This extension is only available in PHP 5.6 and earlier.
mysqli MySQL improved database access.
mysqlnd MySQL native driver. The Default profile includes this extension. The mysqlnd module does not support old pre-MySQL 4.1 passwords.
odbc Unified ODBC database support.
openssl OpenSSL library interface.
pcntl Unix-style process control.
pcre Perl-compatible regular expressions.
pdo PHP Data Objects (PDO) database support. The Default profile includes this extension.
pdo mysql PDO MySQL support.
pdo_odbc PDO ODBC support.
pdo_pgsql PDO PostgreSQL support.
pdo_sqlite Enable access to SQLite 3 databases.
pgsql PostgreSQL DB support.
phalcon Phalcon 3 extension support. This extension is only available for PHP versions 5.5 through 7.3.
phar Disable Phar functionality. The Default profile includes this extension.
posix Extended POSIX support. The Default profile includes this extension.
pspell Check the spelling of a word and offer suggestions.
readline Interface for the GNU Readline library.
recode Interface for the GNU Recode library. This extension is only available for PHP 7.3 and earlier. It conflicts with the imap extension.
reflection Reverse-engineer classes, interfaces, functions, methods, and extensions.
session Session support for PHP.
shmop Allow PHP to read, write, create, and delete Unix shared-memory segments.
simplexml SimpleXML support.
snmp SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) support.
soap SOAP server and client support.
sockets Raw socket support. The Default profile in includes this extension.
sodium The Sodium encryption library. This extension is only available for PHP 7.4 and later.
spl Standard PHP library.
sqlite3 SQLite version 3 database support.
suhosin Improves the security of PHP installations. This extension is only available for PHP 5.6 or earlier.
sysvmsg Enable System V messages support.
sysvsem Enable System V semaphore support .
sysvshm Enable System V shared memory support.
tidy Tidy HTML formatter.
tokenizer PHP tokenizer functionality.
wddx WDDX support. This extension is only available for PHP 7.3 and earlier.
xml XML support. The Default profile includes this extension.
xmlreader XML Pull parser.
xmlrpc XMLRPC client and server support. This extension is only available for PHP 7.4 and earlier.
xmlwriter XML writer extension.
xsl XSL support.
zip Read and write zip archives.
zlib Read and write gzip archives.

Additional Documentation