PHP Options


Last modified: November 28, 2023

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 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 cPanel L.L.C. 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.

  • 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.
  • 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

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:

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

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

  • 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 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