ByJG PHPThread: Simplified Threads and Non-Blocking Code in PHP

ByJG PHPThread simplifies working with threads and non-blocking code in PHP, bridging the gap for a language that was not inherently designed for threading.

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Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Why Threads in PHP?
3. How It Works
   • Default PHP (Non-ZTS)
   • PHP ZTS (Zend Thread Safety)
4. Features
5. Limitations
6. Installation

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Overview

PHPThread is a polyfill library that abstracts threading functionality for PHP, providing a consistent interface regardless of the underlying PHP setup (ZTS or Fork). It empowers developers to implement thread-like behavior and asynchronous processing in PHP applications.

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Why Threads in PHP?

PHP is traditionally designed for a request-response cycle, where scripts are executed only in response to client requests and terminate after sending a response. While efficient for web applications, this architecture lacks native threading support for background or concurrent tasks.

With PHPThread, you can overcome these limitations by leveraging:

• Forking (Default PHP) for simulating threading.
• Zend Thread Safety (ZTS) for true multi-threading environments.

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How It Works

Default PHP (Non-ZTS)

In standard PHP installations (without ZTS), threading is simulated using the fork command. This approach creates a new process by cloning the parent process. While not a true thread, this method can approximate threading behavior.

Requirements:

• pcntl: For process control.
• shmop: For shared memory.

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PHP ZTS (Zend Thread Safety)

With ZTS-enabled PHP, true multi-threading becomes possible. This setup is ideal for production environments where robust threading is required. The ZTS version is compiled with the --enable-zts flag, but it may not be included in all PHP distributions.

Requirements:

• parallel: For multi-threading functionality.
• shmop: For memory sharing.

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Features

• Thread Management: Simplified thread creation and execution (docs).
• Thread Pools: Efficiently manage and reuse threads for multiple tasks (docs).
• Promises (Experimental): Asynchronous task management with a promise-like API (docs).

Supported Promise Methods:

• then(): Execute a callback on promise resolution.
• catch(): Execute a callback on promise rejection.
• finally(): Execute a callback after resolution or rejection.
• Promise::resolve(): Resolve a promise.
• Promise::reject(): Reject a promise.
• Promise::all(): Wait for all promises to resolve.
• Promise::race(): Wait for the first promise to resolve.

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Limitations

Read the full list of limitations.

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Installation

Requirements

Non-ZTS (Default PHP)

• PHP ≥8.1
• pcntl extension
• shmop extension

ZTS (Zend Thread Safety)

• PHP ≥8.1 compiled with --enable-zts
• parallel extension
• shmop extension (for Promises support)

Install via Composer

composer require byjg/phpthread

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Dependencies

flowchart TD
    byjg/phpthread --> byjg/cache-engine
    byjg/phpthread --> ext-posix
    byjg/phpthread --> ext-pcntl
    byjg/phpthread --> ext-pthreads*

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Open source ByJG