Submitting Enhancements and Patches to PHP

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This document describes how to submit an enhancement or patch for PHP.

It's easy!

You don't need any login accounts or special access to download,

build, debug and begin submitting PHP, PECL or PEAR code, tests or

documentation. Once you've followed this README and had several

patches accepted, commit privileges are often quickly granted.

An excellent article to read first is:

http://phpadvent.org/2008/less-whining-more-coding-by-elizabeth-smith

Online Forums

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There are several IRC channels where PHP developers are often

available to discuss questions. They include #php.pecl, #php.doc and

#pear on the EFNet network and #php-dev-win on FreeNode.

PHP Patches

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If you are fixing broken functionality in PHP C source code first

create a bug or identify an existing bug at http://bugs.php.net/. A

bug can be used to track the patch progress and prevent your changes

getting lost in the PHP mail archives.

If your change is large then create a Request For Comment (RFC) page

on http://wiki.php.net/rfc, discuss it with the extension maintainer,

and discuss it on the development mail list internals@lists.php.net.

RFC Wiki accounts can be requested on

http://wiki.php.net/start?do=register. PHP extension maintainers can

be found in the EXTENSIONS file in the PHP source. Mail list

subscription is explained on http://www.php.net/mailing-lists.php.

Information on PHP internal C functions is at

http://www.php.net/internals, though this is considered incomplete.

Various external resources can be found on the web. A standard

printed reference is the book "Extending and Embedding PHP" by Sara

Golemon.

Attach the patch to the PHP bug and consider sending a notification

email about the change to internals@lists.php.net. Also CC the

extension maintainer. Explain what has been changed by your patch.

Test scripts should be included.

Please make the mail subject prefix "[PATCH]". If attaching a patch,

ensure it has a file extension of ".txt". This is because only MIME

attachments of type 'text/*' are accepted.

PHP Documentation Patches

-------------------------

If you are fixing incorrect PHP documentation first create a bug or

identify an existing bug at http://bugs.php.net/. A bug can be used

to track the patch progress and prevent your changes getting lost in

the PHP mail archives.

If your change is large, then first discuss it with the mail list

phpdoc@lists.php.net. Subscription is explained on

http://www.php.net/mailing-lists.php.

Information on contributing to PHP documentation is at

http://php.net/dochowto and http://wiki.php.net/doc/howto

Attach the patch to the PHP bug and consider sending a notification

email about the change to phpdoc@lists.php.net. Explain what has been

fixed/added/changed by your patch.

Please make the mail subject prefix "[PATCH]". Include the bug id(s)

which can be closed by your patch. If attaching a patch, ensure it

has a file extension of ".txt". This is because only MIME attachments

of type 'text/*' are accepted.

PECL Extension Patches: http://pecl.php.net/

--------------------------------------------

If you are fixing broken functionality in a PECL extension then create

a bug or identify an existing bug at http://pecl.php.net/bugs/. A bug

can be used to track the patch progress and prevent your changes

getting lost in the PHP mail archives.

If your change is large then create a Request For Comment (RFC) page

on http://wiki.php.net/rfc, discuss it with the extension maintainer,

and discuss it on the development mail list pecl-dev@lists.php.net.

PECL mail list subscription is explained on

http://pecl.php.net/support.php. RFC Wiki accounts can be requested

on http://wiki.php.net/start?do=register

Information on PHP internal C functions is at

http://www.php.net/internals, though this is considered incomplete.

Various external resources can be found on the web. A standard

printed reference is the book "Extending and Embedding PHP" by Sara

Golemon.

Update any open bugs and add a link to the source of your patch. Send

the patch or pointer to the bug to pecl-dev@lists.php.net. Also CC

the extension maintainer. Explain what has been changed by your

patch. Test scripts should be included.

Please make the mail subject prefix "[PATCH] ...". Include the patch

as an attachment with a file extension of ".txt". This is because

only MIME attachments of type 'text/*' are accepted.

PEAR Package Patches: http://pear.php.net/

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Information on contributing to PEAR is available at

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/developers-newmaint.php and

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/guide-developers.php

How to create your PHP, PHP Documentation or PECL patch

-------------------------------------------------------

PHP and PECL use Subversion (SVN) for revision control. Read

http://www.php.net/svn.php for help on using SVN to get and build PHP

source code. We recommend using a Sparse Directory checkout described

in http://wiki.php.net/vcs/svnfaq. If you are new to SVN, read

http://svnbook.red-bean.com.

Generally we ask that bug fix patches work on the current stable PHP

development branches and on "trunk". New PHP features only need to

work on "trunk".

Read CODING_STANDARDS before you start working.

After modifying the source see README.TESTING and

http://qa.php.net/write-test.php for how to test. Submitting test

scripts helps us to understand what functionality has changed. It is

important for the stability and maintainability of PHP that tests are

comprehensive.

After testing is finished, create a patch file using the command:

svn diff > your_patch.txt

For ease of review and later troubleshooting, submit individual

patches for each bug or feature.

Checklist for submitting your PHP or PECL code patch

----------------------------------------------------

- Update SVN source just before running your final 'diff' and

before testing.

- Add in-line comments and/or have external documentation ready.

Use only "/* */" style comments, not "//".

- Create test scripts for use with "make test".

- Run "make test" to check your patch doesn't break other features.

- Rebuild PHP with --enable-debug (which will show some kinds of

memory errors) and check the PHP and web server error logs after

running your PHP tests.

- Rebuild PHP with --enable-maintainer-zts to check your patch

compiles on multi-threaded web servers.

- Review the patch once more just before submitting it.

What happens after submitting your PHP, PHP Documentation or PECL patch

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If your patch is easy to review and obviously has no side-effects,

it might be committed relatively quickly.

Because PHP is a volunteer-driven effort more complex patches will

require patience on your side. If you do not receive feedback in a

few days, consider resubmitting the patch. Before doing this think

about these questions:

- Did I send the patch to the right mail list?

- Did I review the mail list archives to see if these kind of

changes had been discussed before?

- Did I explain my patch clearly?

- Is my patch too hard to review? Because of what factors?

What happens when your PHP or PECL patch is applied

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Your name will likely be included in the SVN commit log. If your

patch affects end users, a brief description and your name might be

added to the NEWS file.

Thank you for patching PHP!