Where can I learn about PHP internals? [closed]

Question

What are good resources to start learning the internals of PHP and the Zend Engine?

Answer 1

The PHP Manual has a (sadly mostly empty) chapter on PHP internals.

The main development mailing list is [email protected]. You can sign up via php.net and/or use Markmail to search the archives.

The git repository for PHP is located on git.php.net, but there is also a mirror on GitHub.

For browsing the source code you should use the lxr.php.net cross reference tool.

The PHP wiki has a list of various resources on PHP development (blog posts, books, slides, etc).

In particular there is an (older) book by Sara Golemon: Extending and Embedding PHP.

A more current and ongoing effort is http://www.phpinternalsbook.com

If you have questions, you should try the #php.pecl room on efnet.

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Also see this presentation by Sebastian Bergmann about Compiler Internals:

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/18171982/PHP-Compiler-Internals

And make sure to check Nikic's blog. He's got a number of posts on how to read the source:

• http://nikic.github.com/

In addition to that, you can check the PHP Credits for individual contributers:

• http://www.php.net/credits.php

A number of them run their own blogs which might contain more information.

Answer 2

Another lecture on "how does it work" theme:

PHP UK Conference 2012 ^playlist- PHP under the hood ^slides, by Johannes Schlüter

Answer 3

On http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/weblinux2/php/ch14_01.htm you can also find some interesting internals about writing php extensions