Is it possible to use C++ binaries from php

Question

Is it possible to write some C or C++ code and compile to binaries, then use those binaries with php? Is it also possible to write a php library using C and C++ ?

If so, please tell how can I do so?

Answer 1

PHP is modular in design -- it consists of the "engine" and many extensions, some of which are essential (e.g. the "standard" extension) and some are optional. They can be compiled-in or loaded dynamically (via php.ini settings or the dl() function).

You can easily write your own PHP extension in C/C++, if you are willing to learn the API. Start with the documentation on how to "hack the Zend Engine".

Answer 2

You might want to check out SWIG, a general tool for wrapping libraries so that they may be called from a variety of languages. PHP is supported by SWIG, as are Perl and Lua (the targets I've personally used). Quoting from the features list at the SWIG website:

SWIG currently generates wrapper code for eighteen different target languages:

• Allegro CL
• C#
• CFFI
• CLISP
• Chicken
• Guile
• Java
• Lua
• Modula-3
• Mzscheme
• OCAML
• Octave
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• R
• Ruby
• Tcl
• UFFI

In addition to this, the parse tree can be exported as XML and Lisp s-expressions. Experimental work is also available for a Pike module.

Some of its features are dependent on back-end support in the per-language wrapper generators, but in general it provides easy to use wrappers for passing all plain-data value types in and out of functions. Where the target language has the concept, it can usually map object models as well.