Last updated: Fri, 25 May 2012

Installation on Unix systems

This section will guide you through the general configuration and installation of PHP on Unix systems. Be sure to investigate any sections specific to your platform or web server before you begin the process.

As our manual outlines in the General Installation Considerations section, we are mainly dealing with web centric setups of PHP in this section, although we will cover setting up PHP for command line usage as well.

There are several ways to install PHP for the Unix platform, either with a compile and configure process, or through various pre-packaged methods. This documentation is mainly focused around the process of compiling and configuring PHP. Many Unix like systems have some sort of package installation system. This can assist in setting up a standard configuration, but if you need to have a different set of features (such as a secure server, or a different database driver), you may need to build PHP and/or your web server. If you are unfamiliar with building and compiling your own software, it is worth checking to see whether somebody has already built a packaged version of PHP with the features you need.

Prerequisite knowledge and software for compiling:

Basic Unix skills (being able to operate "make" and a C compiler)
An ANSI C compiler
A web server
Any module specific components (such as GD, PDF libs, etc.)

When building directly from SVN sources or after custom modifications you might also need:

autoconf: 2.13+ (for PHP < 5.4.0), 2.59+ (for PHP >= 5.4.0)
automake: 1.4+
libtool: 1.4.x+ (except 1.4.2)
re2c: Version 0.13.4 or newer
flex: Version 2.5.4 (for PHP <= 5.2)
bison: Version 1.28 (preferred), 1.35, or 1.75

The initial PHP setup and configuration process is controlled by the use of the command line options of the configure script. You could get a list of all available options along with short explanations running ./configure --help. Our manual documents the different options separately. You will find the core options in the appendix, while the different extension specific options are descibed on the reference pages.

When PHP is configured, you are ready to build the module and/or executables. The command make should take care of this. If it fails and you can't figure out why, see the Problems section.

add a note User Contributed Notes
Installation on Unix systems

please at nospam dot com
12-Jul-2007 10:09


I thought I should point out that when you run make it says "Build complete. Don't forget to run make test."



But the instructions on this page don't mention make test.

mrstarr at nyx dot net
11-Jun-2007 12:57


Are you serious.   This install process is insane.  Nobody's going to go through this complex install process just to upgrade this stuff.  Its complicated enough as it is just configuring Linux to work, but having to go through this stuff over and over whenever you need to install or upgrade some dependency or component... is getting absurd.



You need a far simpler install process, preferably one that is a standard, i.e.  ./configure , make, make install

davidc at php dot net
21-Mar-2007 03:35


One might want to use .phar then he'll have to compile using phar



--enable-phar --with-zlib --with-bzip2

Alex at GrimMusic dot com
13-Nov-2006 09:49


In response to the guy who posted about the SELinux:



I am new to linux/apache/php (coming from server 2003/IIS/Asp.Net), so i was stumped as to why php/apache could only use static content. Also, it couldn't access some documents that you created somewhere else, and then dragged into the HTML directory.



After some research, i found the problem was the SELinux context of the files. It took me forever to find the Proper command to use to change that, as all the examples on the net were out dated using old commands:

# chcon "user_u:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t" /var/www/html -Rc



This will change the SELinux context of all the documents under the /var/www/html directory (which is the web directory under Fedora), to allow the httpd process to access them, and the '-Rc' flag will make the changes Recursive, and will output it's progress for each file that it sucessfully changes.

squeegee
01-Oct-2006 06:24


regarding the note by phptard at gmail dot com:



This was a good starting point to get php built against the Intel-compiled mysql, but in my case, there were still errors. It wasn't until I also added LIBS="-lirc" to the beginning of the configure line that it would configure without errors. It also compiled fine after that. So the start of my configure line looked like this:



LDFLAGS="-lirc" LIBS="-lirc" EXTRA_LIBS="-lirc" ./configure

Arjan van Bentem
12-Jul-2006 09:29


When using Red Hat Fedora, beware of Security Enhanced Linux, SELinux. 



Quoted from Red Hat: "The security goal is to make sure that Apache HTTP is only reading the static Web content, and not doing anything else such as writing to the content, connecting to database sockets, reading user home directories, etc."



These limitations include, among many other things, using mkdir to create directories, using fopen to access files, using fopen or get_headers to read URLs, or using exec to run external applications that happen to use sockets (or maybe access some files, but which will run fine when executed from the command line as Unix user apache or httpd -- such as HylaFAX "faxstat" as invoked from nweb2fax recvq.php and sendq.php).



See /var/log/messages for any denials due to the SELinux policy. To disable it:



- System, Administration, Security Level and Firewall

- open the SELinux tab

- click the Transition tree

- check Disable SELinux protection for Apache HTTP

- execute /etc/init.d/httpd restart



See also http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq/ and http://php.net/results.php?q=selinux&p=wholesite

flconseil at yahoo dot fr
07-Mar-2006 03:15


Building Apache 2 and PHP 5.1.2 :



On AIX 5.2 : http://flaupretre.free.fr/redir.php?key=build_apa_aix



On HP-UX 11i (11.11) : http://flaupretre.free.fr/redir.php?key=build_apa_hpux



These documents are complete step-by-step howtos, and describe how to buid a self-sufficient package, including every software it depends on (zlib, SSL, LDAP, iconv, expat, xml, xslt, gd, png, Xpm, jpeg, freetype, bzip2, curl, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, AdoDB).

dpresley4 at yahoo dot com
07-Nov-2005 12:42


Hi,



PROBLEM:  ./configure PHP --with-oci8 



fails with unresolved references such as __rpc_thread_destroy@GLIBC_2_2_3_...



ONE SOLUTOIN 



FOR SOLVING PHP ./configure RESULTING IN  __rcp_thread_destroy@GLIBC_2_2_3_... AND 

UNRESOLVED REFERENCES WITH ORACLE OCI8



KEYWORDS: PHP OCI OCI8 NET8 ./configure __rpc_thred_destroy UNRESOLVED REFERENCES



For building php-4.4.1 or later with oci8, make sure your LD_LIBARRY_PATH has at a minimum the following directories in its path for Oracle8i 8.1.5 or later, Oracle9i 9.0.2 or later, and Oracle9i Release 2: 9.2.0.4 or later, do the following:



Note:  We are not using the Oracle Instant Client here.  This assumes you have an actual Oracle Installation.



1. Set ORACLE_HOME



Example using Oracle 9i Relase 2 -- 9.2.0.5:



ORACLE_HOME=/opt/app/oracle/product/9iR2



2. Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH with:



LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib: \

    $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib:\ 

    $LD_LIBRARY_PATH



3. On Unix / Linux, don't forget to export these environment variables:



export ORACLE_HOME LD_LIBRARY_PATH



4. Now, build PHP with the following:



./configure --with-apxs2=<path to Apache 2.0/bin/apxs> --with-oci8=$ORACLE_HOME --enable-sigchild



It should now build correctly. The key with Oracle is to ensure that you pick up the libclntX.so (client librariess) where X is the Oracle version associated with the version your using for instance, in the above example, libclnt9.so



Also note that if your using Oracle 9iAS Release 2 v9.0.2, Oracle 10g iAS Release 1 v9.0.4.1, the above steps will work because ORACLE_HOME will containe all of the libraries necessary.  Simply point ORACLE_HOME to the top level directory of these installations and set LD_LIBRARY_PATH as described above.



Hope this helps.

phptard at gmail dot com
23-Mar-2005 01:17


after a long night of wrestling with mysql4.0 under linux compiled with the intel compiler, i've gotten php5.0.3 to compile with mysql libraries for this flavor of mysql:



1: download the mysql for linux/intel compiler and install

2: download the rpm for the intel compiler libraries and install

3: configure php with LDFLAGS="-lirc -lgcc_s" and EXTRA_LIBS="-lirc -lgcc_s"



Example:



LDFLAGS="-lirc -lgcc_s" LD_LIBRARY_PATH="-L/usr/lib64" LD_PATH="-L/usr/lib64" LDPATH="-L/usr/lib64" EXTRA_LIBS="-lirc -lgcc_s" ./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs --with-ssl=/usr/local/ssl --without-sqlite --with-zlib-dir=/usr --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql



of course this is on a xeon system that has half of its modules in the /usr/lib64 directory, so on a normal system, without the other kruft, it would look something more like this:



LDFLAGS="-lirc -lgcc_s" EXTRA_LIBS="-lirc -lgcc_s" ./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql



Hopefully this will save someone the 6 hour headache it caused me..

diemuzi at gmail dot com
13-Jan-2005 07:11


In reference to van [at] webfreshener [dot] com to fix the krb5 problems. An easier fix is to do the following:



ln -s /usr/kerberos/include/krb5.h /usr/include/krb5.h

ln -s /usr/kerberos/include/profile.h /usr/include/profile.h

ln -s /usr/kerberos/include/com_err.h /usr/include/com_err.h



This will help solve some deps. in the future incase a situation with another compilation occurs.

alexander justadot henry at acm dot org
22-Dec-2004 09:48


The system at my workplace has a need for apache/php with all static compilation.  In order to save time adminning our systems, I decided to make my own RPM of php/apache with mod_ssl support.  I had always installed by hand with the instructions on this page, but when buiding the RPM way, came upon the following error when apache was compiling:



===> src/modules/php4 

make[4]: *** No rule to make target `all'. Stop.



Ordinarily this is because one did not do a 'make install' in php before the second apache configure, or somehow the make install failed.  But the way rpm's work, the make install must be in the %install portion of the spec file, after all makes are completed.



make install-sapi



This line will copy relevant files to the directory specified in --with-apache

samael99 at web dot de
24-Jun-2004 03:51


Quick hint for people using RH8:



if make gives you this error

FT_ENCODING_MS_SYMBOL undeclared



change on line in this file

/usr/include/freetype2/freetype/freetype.h



Search for ft_encoding_symbol - change it to

ft_encoding_ms_symbol



Now this problem is dealt with, go ahead with make. 



Good Luck !

robert_sgi at yahoo dot com
08-May-2004 08:57


If you install php 4 on SGI IRIX 6.5 (in my case it was php 4.3.6 on Silicon Graphics O2 IRIX 6.5.22 machine) and you're building it with:


--with-gettext=/usr/freeware


then you need to manually edit the file named "configure" (from the php source directory) and change the line# 36739


from:


GETTEXT_LIBDIR=$GETTEXT_DIR/lib


to:


GETTEXT_LIBDIR=$GETTEXT_DIR/lib32


If you have problems in locating the line, search the text for "bindtextdomain", and look several (4) lines above.

karthik (dot) k (at) extremix (dot) net
18-Jan-2004 05:28


This is regarding the post down below about the problem with openssl on RH9. Openssl on RH9 is built with kerberos. To get PHP to build correctly you need the output of these commands when you make.



[root@graf-spee local]# pkg-config --cflags openssl

-I/usr/kerberos/include  



[root@graf-spee local]# pkg-config --libs openssl

-L/usr/kerberos/lib -lssl -lcrypto -lresolv -lgssapi_krb5 -lkrb5 -lk5crypto -lcom_err -ldl -lz  



These could be added to your make command thus. I have not tested it out, but should work with some tweaking



make EXTRA_LDFLAGS=`pkg-config --libs openssl` EXTRA_CFLAGS=`pkg-config --cflags openssl`

thansen at terra dot com dot br
31-Dec-2003 05:36


The configure directives --with-apxs2 and --with-apxs2filter are not compatible one with other, even though the configure script will not complain about that. Each one affect the way Apache will call the php parser: If you choose the first one, you must use the traditional include:



AddType application/x-httpd-php php



at httpd.conf, to call the parser. If you use the --with-apxs2filter, the include will be:



<Files *.php>

        SetOutputFilter PHP

        SetInputFilter  PHP

</Files>



, and php will be called as a filter to .php files.



If you use both together, you will get compilation errors (duplicate symbols while linking libphp4).

aaronmorris at mindspring dot com
05-Dec-2003 09:47


If you have the libphp4.a instead of libphp4.so on AIX, you can extract the .so file from the .a file by running "ar -x libphp4.a".

jazee_at_bigfoot.com
26-Mar-2003 09:52


http://dan.drydog.com/apache2php.html has a nice set of instructions for Apache2 + php

doug at NOSPAM dot techie dot net
04-Feb-2003 02:16


Users compiling under some versions of Solaris/SunOS may encounter the following error.


   symbol ap_block_alarms: referenced symbol not found





To address this problem, add the following additional flag to the Apache build configure line:


   --enable-rule=SHARED_CORE





So, adding this to the original instructions, you'd configure your Apache build like so:


   ./configure --prefix=/www --enable-module=so --enable-rule=SHARED_CORE





Doug

mbabcock-php at fibrespeed dot net
21-Jul-2001 06:32


The best configuration guide I've found for Apache with PHP (and PERL, mod_ssl, etc.) is Apacompile.  Its home site is 


http://www.delouw.ch/linux/apache.phtml

dimaberastau at hotmail dot com
10-Jun-2001 06:33


when installing with mysql support (--with-mysql=<path/to/your/mysql>) via Apache APXS you'll probably get something like 'can't load libmysqlclient.so' when you try to start up apache. There are 2 solutions to this problem. First, (as documented in INSTALL file of the php4 distribution) you can modify /etc/ld.so.conf to contain the directory name where libmysqlclient.so is (so if your mysql is installed in /usr/local, you want to add something like /usr/local/lib/mysql into /etc/ld.so.conf), else (and particularly if you haven't got the super-user on the system) you can modify (or create if it isn't defined already) LD_LIBRARY_PATH shell variable to reflect the changes you would have otherwise made to /etc/ld.so.conf (again if mysql is /usr/local LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib/mysql). Either one of these methods will get the problem sorted. Just remember to run ldconfig (so that /etc/ld.so.cache is updated) if you chose to modify /etc/ld.so.conf

marshalm at ebrd dot com
17-May-2001 07:43


HP-UX 11.X PA-RISC installation with oracle (oci8). You need to install the HP-UX patch PHSS_22514 patch (updated libdld.sl), otherwise you will get errors with dlopen() and dlclose() not found during the apache integration stage.

philip at c()rnad() dot c()m
25-Mar-2001 02:22


HOWTO: Installation on Cobalt RaQ  (RaQ3 or RaQ4) :


http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=php-general&m=98039640119670&w=2

add a note

Apache 1.3.x on Unix systems

General Installation Considerations

Last updated: Fri, 25 May 2012

Installation on Unix systems

Table of Contents