macOS-php

Native (Apple Silicon, arm64) PHP 5.6.40 + nginx for modern macOS — fully self-contained: no Docker, no Homebrew at runtime. The only libraries it links outside its own prefix are the ones macOS always ships (libSystem, libc++, libresolv, libxml2, libicucore).

Two ways to get it:

1. Download prebuilt binaries from GitHub Releases and let install.sh generate the local config + a self-signed TLS cert. No compiler needed.
2. Build from source with compile-php.sh (everything vendored from source into one prefix).

PHP 5.6 is EOL upstream; this uses Remi Collet's php-src-security fork (CVE backports onto 5.6, built against OpenSSL 1.1.1).

Extensions: intl, openssl, curl, mysqli, pdo_mysql, mysqlnd, mbstring, zip, bcmath, exif, opcache + apcu and tideways_xhprof (PECL). SAPIs: CLI (with the built-in php -S server) and FPM.

The bundle is tied to its install prefix (/opt/php56 by default) via absolute install_names. It must be extracted exactly there — install.sh handles that. To use a different prefix, build from source with PREFIX=....

Install prebuilt (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/areqq/macOS-php/main/install.sh -o install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh                                   # latest release
# or a specific tag / a custom site:
SERVER_NAME=php.local PORT=8443 DOCROOT="$PWD/public" ./install.sh v1.0.0

install.sh downloads the release bundle, verifies its SHA-256, extracts it to /opt/php56 (asks for sudo only to create the dir), generates a self-signed cert for SERVER_NAME, renders nginx.conf for your DOCROOT, and writes start.sh / stop.sh.

/opt/php56/start.sh         # php-fpm + nginx  → https://localhost:8443/
/opt/php56/stop.sh
export PATH="/opt/php56/bin:$PATH"
php -v

If SERVER_NAME isn't localhost, add it to /etc/hosts:

echo "127.0.0.1 php.local" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

PHP 8.5 build

This repo also ships a sibling PHP 8.5 + nginx build (same approach, into /opt/php8.5) under php85/ — production-minimal extension set, fully self-contained. See php85/README.md. It builds on a separate CI workflow (tags php85-vX.Y.Z) and publishes its own Releases.

Build from source

See BUILD.md for the full process and the macOS-specific pitfalls. Quick version:

./compile-php.sh            # full build → /opt/php56 (~30–40 min)
./compile-php.sh -l         # list steps
./compile-php.sh nginx config   # run selected steps only
./compile-php.sh dist       # pack a distribution archive

Version pins and paths live in versions.env; override any via the environment (e.g. PREFIX=/tmp/php ./compile-php.sh).

CI / releases

.github/workflows/build.yml builds on a hosted macos-14 (arm64) runner. Trigger manually (Actions → build → Run workflow) for an artifact, or push a vX.Y.Z tag to build and publish a GitHub Release with the bundle + .sha256. install.sh pulls from the latest release.

Layout

macOS-php/
├── compile-php.sh            # source build (steps: prereqs … nginx … verify)
├── versions.env              # pinned versions + paths (override via env)
├── install.sh                # install prebuilt from Releases + local config/cert
├── etc/
│   ├── php.ini
│   ├── conf.d/{10-opcache,15-apcu,99-perf}.ini
│   ├── php-fpm.d/www.conf
│   └── nginx/nginx.conf.template
└── .github/workflows/build.yml