Using .phpbrewrc files

During development of multiple projects which require different PHP versions and/or configurations, it's convenient to have the configuration automatically switched when current directory is changed. This may be achieved by means of using .phpbrewrc files.

For instance, I have a project which only works with PHP 5.3, and I want PHP 5.3.29 to be automatically used for it. In order to make this happen, I need to create a .phpbrewrc file in the project's root directory:

$ echo 'phpbrew use 5.3.29' > ~/Projects/my-legacy-project/.phpbrewrc

Then, I make sure PHPBREW_RC_ENABLE is set. I usually add it to my ~/.bashrc just before sourcing ~/.phpbrew/bashrc:

export PHPBREW_RC_ENABLE=1
source ~/.phpbrew/bashrc

Given that the required version of PHP is already installed, when I enter the project's directory, the PHP version is automatically switched:

$ cd ~/Projects/my-legacy-project
$ php -v
PHP 5.3.29 (cli) (built: Aug 14 2014 19:35:35)

When the project's directory is left, and there's no .phpbrewrc file in current directory or any of its parent directories, the default configuration of PHPBrew is loaded:

$ cd ~
$ php -v
PHP 5.6.2 (cli) (built: Oct 31 2014 19:51:53)

In fact, .phpbrewrc is a regular text file which may contain any shell commands.