php-embed-stream-http

This repository is a small collection of examples that embed PHP into a C program through the embed SAPI and use PHP's Stream API to handle HTTP communication.

The examples show how to bootstrap an embedded PHP runtime from C without writing PHP scripts, then directly use APIs such as php_stream_xport_create(), php_stream_read(), and php_stream_write().

Included Examples

• src/http_client.c Connects to example.com:80 over TCP, sends an HTTP/1.1 GET request, and prints the full response to standard output.
• src/http_server.c A minimal HTTP server that listens on 127.0.0.1:8080, logs the received request, and returns hello world.
• src/http_server_tls.c A minimal HTTPS server that listens on 127.0.0.1:8443. It configures SSL options through a PHP stream context and is intended for local experiments with self-signed certificates.

Requirements

• A PHP development environment with the embed SAPI enabled
• PHP header files
• A shared libphp library
• A C compiler

If php-config --php-sapis includes embed, that is a good sign that embedded PHP support is available.

On Debian / Ubuntu systems, you may need packages equivalent to php8.x-dev and libphp8.x-embed. The actual library name depends on your environment, so check /usr/lib/libphp*.so and the output of php-config.

Build

This repository does not include a Makefile. The intended starting point is to compile each example individually.

In this environment, at least src/http_client.c and src/http_server.c built successfully with the following pattern.

cc -o http_client src/http_client.c   $(php-config --includes)   $(php-config --ldflags)   -L/usr/lib -lphp8.5

cc -o http_server src/http_server.c   $(php-config --includes)   $(php-config --ldflags)   -L/usr/lib -lphp8.5

cc -o http_server_tls src/http_server_tls.c   $(php-config --includes)   $(php-config --ldflags)   -L/usr/lib -lphp8.5

Depending on your system, -lphp8.5 may need to be replaced with something like -lphp8.4, -lphp8, or -lphp. Some environments also return an empty value from php-config --lib-embed, so adjust the link target to match the actual library file you have installed.

Usage Examples

HTTP Client

./http_client

This prints the full HTTP response returned by example.com.

HTTP Server

./http_server
curl -i http://127.0.0.1:8080/

The server logs the raw request and returns the following response body to the client.

hello world

HTTPS Server

src/http_server_tls.c assumes that the following files exist in the current working directory.

• localhost.pem
• localhost-key.pem

For local testing, a self-signed certificate can be generated like this.

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes   -keyout localhost-key.pem   -out localhost.pem   -subj "/CN=localhost"   -days 365

Start the server and test it like this.

./http_server_tls
curl -k -i https://127.0.0.1:8443/

This example intentionally sets allow_self_signed=true, verify_peer=false, and verify_peer_name=false to make local testing easier. These settings are not suitable for production.

What This Repository Demonstrates

• The minimum setup required to initialize and shut down embedded PHP from C
• Creating client and server transports with php_stream_xport_create()
• Configuring SSL options with php_stream_context_set_option()
• Building HTTP messages with smart_str
• The general feel of using PHP's Stream API directly from C

Notes

• These examples are for learning and experimentation. They intentionally omit the robustness and security work required by production-grade HTTP software.
• The server implementations only read a single request in a very simple way. They do not handle keep-alive, partial reads, timeout management, or similar concerns.
• The TLS example assumes the use of a self-signed certificate.

License

MIT License