Install and Configure PHP¶

This guide will show you how to get started with LSPHP (PHP with LiteSpeed API) on your linux machine.

We will cover:

• Installing PHP
  • from the LiteSpeed Repository
  • from source
• Configuring LSPHP

Installation¶

Install from LiteSpeed Repository¶

The easiest way to get up and running with PHP is to use the LiteSpeed Repository. The LiteSpeed Repository comes with prebuilt PHP packages with LiteSpeed support built in.

Here is a list of some of the features you get when you use our LiteSpeed Repository, instead of compiling PHP manually:

• PHP versions 5.3^*, 5.4^*, 5.5^*, 5.6^*, 7.0^*, 7.1^*, 7.2^*, 7.3^*, 7.4^*, 8.0^*, 8.1, 8.2 and 8.3.
• CentOS* 7 (EOL June 30, 2024), 8, 9
• Debian 10 (EOL June 30, 2024), 11, 12
• Ubuntu 20, 22, 24
• The most up-to-date versions of LSAPI. (You don't have to wait for a new PHP version to be released.)
• Easy installation of multiple versions of PHP (by default installed to different locations).
• All frequently used PHP packages.
• Multiple possible MySQL support packages (via native driver or client library).
• Multiple opcode caching options: APCu, Xcache, Zend Opcache.

Prerequisites¶

Before you can install LSPHP there are a couple of prerequisite packages and repositories that need to be installed via the operating system's package manager. This can be accomplished by running the following command in a terminal:

$ sudo wget -O - https://repo.litespeed.sh | sudo bash

Packages¶

It is not a requirement to search through the LSPHP packages and extensions we offer before installing, but it does come in handy to know what you can install and then have the option to install everything at the same time. To get a list of all the LSPHP packages and extensions we offer you can run the following:

$ sudo apt-cache search lsphp

$ sudo dnf search lsphp

$ sudo dnf search lsphp

$ sudo yum search lsphp

Install¶

Now that you have installed the prerequisites you can go ahead with the actual installation process.

If you searched our repository then you can use the names of the packages and extensions you found to install what you need.

For example, to install LSPHP82 and LSPHP82-mysql via the command line you would run the following:

$ sudo apt-get install lsphp82 lsphp82-common lsphp82-mysql

$ sudo dnf install lsphp82 lsphp82-common lsphp82-mysqlnd

$ sudo dnf install lsphp82 lsphp82-common lsphp82-mysqlnd

$ sudo dnf install lsphp82 lsphp82-common lsphp82-mysqlnd

This will install lsphp82 and lsphp82-mysql into the following location: /usr/local/lsws/lsphp82/bin/lsphp.

Once all of the packages and extensions you need have been installed, you can continue to Configuration.

Install from Source¶

Here we will take a look at how to compile PHP + LSAPI from source. This can be useful for custom setups and for platforms where our LiteSpeed Repo is not available.

Prerequisites¶

PHP has many dependencies that are needed when compiling and these often change depending on what extensions and functions you compile PHP with. So before you can compile you will need to install some default packages that are needed for a reasonably feature rich PHP.

From the command line, run the following:

$ sudo apt-get build-essential pkg-config openssl libssl-dev openssl-blacklist openssl-blacklist-extra  bison autoconf automake libtool re2c flex libxml2-dev libssl-dev libbz2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libdb5.1-dev libjpeg-dev libpng12-dev libXpm-dev libfreetype6-dev libt1-dev libgmp3-dev libc-client2007e-dev libldap2-dev libmcrypt-dev libmhash-dev freetds-dev zlib1g-dev libmysqlclient-dev libncurses5-dev libpcre3-dev unixODBC-dev libsqlite0-dev libaspell-dev libreadline6-dev librecode-dev libsnmp-dev libtidy-dev libxslt-dev libt1-dev

$ sudo dnf install patch gcc glibc libstdc++ binutils libtool autoconf make bison pam-devel libcap-devel openssl-devel tcp_wrappers-devel bzip2-devel curl-devel db4-devel gmp-devel httpd-devel libstdc++-devel sqlite-devel sqlite2-devel liyuybedit-devel pcre-devel libtool gcc-c++ libtool-ltdl-devel libevent-devel libc-client-devel cyrus-sasl-devel openldap-devel mysql-devel postgresql-devel unixODBC-devel libxml2-devel net-snmp-devel libxslt-devel libxml2-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel freetype-devel libXpm-devel t1lib-devel libmcrypt-devel libtidy-devel freetds-devel aspell-devel recode-devel enchant-devel firebird-devel gdbm-devel tokyocabinet-devel

$ sudo dnf install patch gcc glibc libstdc++ binutils libtool autoconf make bison pam-devel libcap-devel openssl-devel tcp_wrappers-devel bzip2-devel curl-devel db4-devel gmp-devel httpd-devel libstdc++-devel sqlite-devel sqlite2-devel liyuybedit-devel pcre-devel libtool gcc-c++ libtool-ltdl-devel libevent-devel libc-client-devel cyrus-sasl-devel openldap-devel mysql-devel postgresql-devel unixODBC-devel libxml2-devel net-snmp-devel libxslt-devel libxml2-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel freetype-devel libXpm-devel t1lib-devel libmcrypt-devel libtidy-devel freetds-devel aspell-devel recode-devel enchant-devel firebird-devel gdbm-devel tokyocabinet-devel

$ sudo yum install patch gcc glibc libstdc++ binutils libtool autoconf make bison pam-devel libcap-devel openssl-devel tcp_wrappers-devel bzip2-devel curl-devel db4-devel gmp-devel httpd-devel libstdc++-devel sqlite-devel sqlite2-devel liyuybedit-devel pcre-devel libtool gcc-c++ libtool-ltdl-devel libevent-devel libc-client-devel cyrus-sasl-devel openldap-devel mysql-devel postgresql-devel unixODBC-devel libxml2-devel net-snmp-devel libxslt-devel libxml2-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel freetype-devel libXpm-devel t1lib-devel libmcrypt-devel libtidy-devel freetds-devel aspell-devel recode-devel enchant-devel firebird-devel gdbm-devel tokyocabinet-devel

This will install the basic dependencies for the PHP that you will compile in the next section.

Compile¶

Now that the dependencies have been installed you can work on compiling PHP.

First, you will need to download and extract PHP. This can be done by running the following in a command line:

$ sudo cd /tmp
$ sudo wget https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.2.17.tar.gz
$ sudo tar -xf php-8.2.17.tar.gz
$ sudo cd php-8.2.17

Now that PHP has been download and extracted, in the source code folder run ./configure with --with-litespeed and other configuration options. For example, you can run the following:

$ sudo ./configure  '--prefix=/usr/local/lsws/lsphp82' '--with-libdir=lib64' '--with-zlib' '--with-gd' '--enable-shmop' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-sysvsem' '--enable-sysvshm' '--with-curl' '--with-openssl' '--with-gettext' '--with-mcrypt' '--enable-mbstring=all' '--enable-mbregex' '--with-png-dir=/usr' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-kerberos' '--enable-ftp' '--with-imap=/usr' '--with-imap-ssl' '--with-mysql=/usr' '--with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config' '--enable-pcntl' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-pdo-mysql=/usr' '--with-litespeed'

Now that PHP is configured, you can compile it. This is accomplished by running these commands in a terminal:

$ sudo make
$ sudo make install

Once make install is finished then LSPHP is all set to go. You can continue to Configuration.

Configuration¶

This section will show you how to manually set up the PHP section at the server level so that it can work with your system's binaries to serve PHP files.

GUI¶

Server Level¶

To set up the PHP section via our WebAdmin Console GUI, navigate to External Application > Add, and choose LSAPI Type. Set the following example values, and press Save:

• Name: lsphp
• Address: uds://tmp/lshttpd/lsphp.sock
• Max Connections: 10
• Environment: PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN=10 LSAPI_AVOID_FORK=200M
• Initial Request Timeout (secs): 60
• Retry Timeout (secs): 0
• Command: lsphp82/bin/lsphp
• Instances: 1

Navigate to Server Configuration > Add Script Handler. Set the following example values, and press Save:

• Suffixes: php
• Handler Type: LiteSpeed SAPI
• Handler Name [Server Level]: lsphp

Restart the web server and PHP.

That is it! PHP is now fully set up, and pages ending in the suffixes you added to the PHP Handler will use the PHP Handlers > Command to process the page.

Virtual Host Level¶

If you want to use different settings for any of your virtual hosts, you can set up the same external applications and script handlers at the virtual host level, which will override any server-level script handler settings.

Navigate to Server Configuration > Virtual Hosts > Example2 > Script Handlers > Add, and update the new script handler with appropriate settings, using the following example as a guide: - Suffixes: php - Handler Type: LiteSpeed SAPI - Handler Name: lsphp82

Command Line¶

It is possible to configure PHP manually via a terminal. Open /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf, like so:

$ sudo vi /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf

Add the following extprocessor block to the file:

extprocessor lsphp {
  type                    lsapi
  address                 uds://tmp/lshttpd/lsphp.sock
  maxConns                10
  env                     PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN=10
  env                     LSAPI_AVOID_FORK=200M
  initTimeout             60
  retryTimeout            0
  persistConn             1
  respBuffer              0
  autoStart               2
  path                    lsphp82/bin/lsphp
  backlog                 100
  instances               1
  priority                0
  memSoftLimit            0
  memHardLimit            0
  procSoftLimit           0
  procHardLimit           0
}

Add the following scripthandler block to the file:

scripthandler  {
  add                     lsapi:lsphp php
}

Save the file. The changes won't take effect until you restart OpenLiteSpeed. To do so, run the following commands:

$ sudo touch /usr/local/lsws/admin/tmp/.lsphp_restart.txt
$ sudo systemctl restart lsws

More PHP Settings¶

You can further configure PHP using the following settings.

PHP Handlers¶

PHP External App Defaults¶