PHP Extensions
Included PHP Extensions
Herd includes the most common PHP extensions that also come pre-installed on any Laravel Forge provisioned server. This means that you can use the following extensions without any additional setup:
bcmath
The BCMath extension provides arbitrary-precision arithmetic. It allows you to work with large numbers and perform mathematical operations with high precision, which is particularly useful in financial applications.
bz2
The BZ2 extension enables data compression using the bzip2 algorithm. This reduces file sizes and improves storage efficiency.
calendar
The Calendar extension provides functions to convert between different calendar formats. It supports conversions between Julian, Gregorian, and Jewish calendars, among others.
ctype
The Ctype extension provides functions to check for and convert between character types. It is useful for validating and sanitizing text input.
curl
The cURL extension enables HTTP requests using various protocols. It is essential for integrating with third-party APIs and fetching external data.
dba
The DBA extension allows you to interact with flat-file databases, like DBM. It provides a simple way to store and retrieve key-value pairs.
dom
The DOM extension provides a complete API for working with XML documents via the Document Object Model. It simplifies XML parsing and manipulation.
exif
The Exif extension reads Exchangeable Image File (Exif) metadata from images. It allows you to access camera information, orientation, GPS data, and more.
ffi
The Foreign Function Interface (FFI) extension allows PHP to call functions written in other languages (like C) directly, providing the ability to use libraries written in those languages.
fileinfo
The Fileinfo extension detects file types based on file signatures. It is useful for security checks and content-type validation.
filter
The Filter extension provides a simple way to sanitize and validate data, particularly user input, ensuring data integrity and security.
ftp
The FTP extension provides functions for accessing files on FTP servers. It simplifies the process of transferring files over FTP.
gd
The GD extension offers functions for creating and manipulating images. It supports several image formats and provides capabilities like resizing, cropping, and drawing shapes.
gmp
The GMP extension provides functions for arbitrary-precision arithmetic using the GNU Multiple Precision (GMP) library. It is ideal for cryptographic applications.
iconv
The Iconv extension provides functions for converting between different character encodings. It ensures text compatibility across various languages and encoding formats.
igbinary
The Igbinary extension provides an alternative binary serialization format. It reduces storage space and speeds up data deserialization.
imagick
The Imagick extension provides an interface to the ImageMagick library, enabling advanced image processing capabilities, such as resizing, blurring, and color correction.
imap
The IMAP extension provides functions to interact with email servers using IMAP, POP3, and NNTP protocols. It is useful for reading, composing, and sending emails.
intl
The Intl extension provides internationalization functions, including formatting numbers, dates, currencies according to locale, and handling text in different languages.
ldap
The LDAP extension allows PHP to interact with LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directories. It is useful for managing centralized user directories and authenticating users.
lz4
The LZ4 extension provides fast compression and decompression using the LZ4 algorithm. It is suitable for applications requiring high-speed data compression.
mbstring
The Multibyte String (Mbstring) extension provides functions to handle multibyte encodings, making it essential for processing non-ASCII text.
mysqli
The MySQLi extension provides an improved interface to MySQL databases. It supports prepared statements, transactions, and multiple query results.
opcache
The Opcache extension improves PHP performance by caching precompiled script bytecode, reducing the need for PHP to recompile scripts on each request.
openssl
The OpenSSL extension enables secure data transmission using SSL and TLS protocols. It provides functions for encryption, decryption, and handling of digital certificates.
pcntl
The PCNTL extension enables process control functions, allowing you to manage parallel processing and signal handling in PHP.
pdo
The PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension provides a unified interface for database access. It supports prepared statements and various database drivers.
pdo_mysql
The PDO_MySQL extension provides a PDO driver for MySQL databases, enabling secure and efficient access to MySQL using prepared statements.
pdo_pgsql
The PDO_PgSQL extension provides a PDO driver for PostgreSQL databases, allowing secure and efficient access to PostgreSQL using prepared statements.
pdo_sqlite
The PDO_SQLite extension provides a PDO driver for SQLite databases, facilitating lightweight and embedded database access with minimal configuration.
pgsql
The PgSQL extension provides native PostgreSQL database functions, offering comprehensive access to PostgreSQL features.
phar
The Phar extension enables packaging PHP applications into a single file archive (PHAR). It simplifies application distribution and deployment.
posix
The POSIX extension provides functions for POSIX-like system calls, useful for handling process management and file permissions.
readline
The Readline extension provides interactive command-line editing capabilities. It enhances the CLI experience by supporting history and line editing.
redis
The Redis extension allows PHP to interact with the Redis in-memory data structure store. It is essential for caching, message brokering, and real-time data processing.
session
The Session extension manages session data between requests. It simplifies storing and retrieving user-specific data securely.
shmop
The SHMOP extension allows PHP to read and write shared memory segments. It is useful for IPC (Inter-Process Communication).
simplexml
The SimpleXML extension provides a simple interface for parsing and manipulating XML documents. It makes working with XML data intuitive and efficient.
soap
The SOAP extension provides functions for building and consuming SOAP-based web services. It simplifies integrating with legacy systems that use SOAP.
sockets
The Sockets extension provides functions for low-level socket communication, enabling PHP to create network clients and servers.
sodium
The Sodium extension provides modern cryptography functions. It is useful for encryption, decryption, password hashing, and digital signatures.
sqlite3
The SQLite3 extension provides native functions for interacting with SQLite databases, offering efficient and lightweight database access.
sysvmsg
The SysVMsg extension allows PHP to send and receive System V IPC messages. It is useful for messaging between multiple processes.
sysvsem
The SysVSem extension provides functions for managing System V semaphores, which are useful for synchronizing multiple processes.
sysvshm
The SysVShm extension allows PHP to read and write System V shared memory segments. It is useful for sharing data between multiple processes.
tokenizer
The Tokenizer extension provides functions to parse PHP code into tokens, making it useful for syntax highlighting and static analysis.
xml
The XML extension provides a basic set of tools for working with XML data, allowing for parsing and validation.
xmlreader
The XMLReader extension provides a fast, non-caching XML parser, suitable for processing large XML files efficiently.
xmlwriter
The XMLWriter extension offers functions for creating XML documents via a writer API, providing efficient XML generation.
xsl
The XSL extension allows you to transform XML documents using XSLT stylesheets. It enables flexible data transformation between XML formats.
zip
The Zip extension provides functions for creating, modifying, and extracting files from ZIP archives, simplifying archive management.
zlib
The Zlib extension provides functions for data compression and decompression using the zlib library. It is useful for reducing storage space and network bandwidth.
Installing PHP extensions
You may add additional PHP extensions that are not included out of the box with Herd, by installing them via Homebrew and pecl. The reason for this is that most of these extension have dependencies and can not be statically compiled, and therefore shipped, with Herd.
Adding extensions
To install additional extensions via Homebrew, you can compile them with the following commands. At first, Homebrew needs a base PHP for compiling the extension. This base PHP is only used for compiling the extension and Herd keeps using the static binaries, so you can still use the built-in Herd updater for PHP.
Once PHP is installed via Homebrew, you may install the extension:
This creates an [extension].so extension file that you can now activate and use with Laravel Herd.
On an M1/M2 Mac, the extension can be found at /opt/homebrew/lib/php/pecl.
On an Intel Mac, it will be at /usr/local/lib/php/pecl.
Activating extensions
You may activate your custom extensions by editing your php.ini file.
This file is located at ~/Library/Application Support/Herd/config/php/<version>/php.ini..