PHP Internals: The Zend Engine and C Extensions: A Comprehensive Guide to Zend Engine, Learn C Extension Development, and Optimize Your PHP Applicatio

You'll learn

• Understand PHP's core internals: Learn the "how" and "why" behind PHP, going beyond basic scripting.
• Boost your skills: Gain expertise in performance optimization, advanced debugging, and the ability to contribute to the PHP core or build powerful C extensions.
• Set up your environment: Compile PHP from source and master essential tools like GDB for internal development.

• Explore the PHP Request Lifecycle: Discover how PHP interacts with various SAPIs (FPM, Apache, CLI) and dive into key stages like MINIT, RINIT, and RSHUTDOWN.
• Master the Zend Engine architecture: Get an in-depth look at its components: Lexer, Parser, Compiler, Executor (Zend VM), and Memory Manager.

• Trace code execution: Understand how PHP code is broken into tokens, transformed into an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST), compiled into Opcodes, and executed by the Zend VM.
• Leverage OPcache: Learn how it optimizes performance by reusing opcodes.

• Deep dive into memory management: Understand the Zend Memory Manager (ZMM), memory allocation types, and PHP's Garbage Collection (GC), including how to identify memory leaks.
• Work with ZVALs: Master PHP's universal data container and how all data types (scalars, arrays, objects) are represented internally, including reference counting and Copy-on-Write (COW).
• Explore core data structures: Get to grips with zend_string, HashTable (for arrays), and zend_object (for objects).

• Develop PHP extensions in C: Learn the fundamentals, including the extension anatomy and lifecycle functions.
• Build your first extension: Define C functions for PHP, handle argument parsing, and return values.
• Implement advanced extension techniques: Work with arrays, define classes/objects, manage resources, and handle INI settings and exceptions.
• Ensure thread safety: Understand TSRM and how to write robust, thread-safe extensions.
• Interface with external C libraries: Link and integrate third-party libraries into your extensions.
• Debug and profile extensions: Use powerful tools like GDB and Valgrind to optimize your C code.

• Analyze the PHP Standard Library: Dissect core PHP function implementations to understand best practices.
• Optimize extension performance: Learn strategies for writing efficient C code and understand the impact of JIT Compilation.
• Contribute to PHP core: Discover the RFC process, coding standards, Git workflow, and how to get involved in the community.