How Packages Are Built

All PHM packages are built automatically from source and hosted on GitHub. The entire process is open-source and transparent.

Source Repository

Packages are built in the phm-dev/php-packages repository. It contains:

• Build scripts for PHP core and extensions
• Extension configuration (versions, dependencies, build flags)
• GitHub Actions workflows for automated builds
• The index.json package index that PHM reads when you run phm update

Build Pipeline

Every day at 3:00 UTC, GitHub Actions workflows check php.net for new PHP patch versions and Packagist for new extension releases. If a new version is found, a build is triggered automatically.

The pipeline:

1. Check for updates — compares the latest version on php.net / Packagist with the last built version in GitHub Releases
2. Build dependencies — compiles static libraries needed by extensions (e.g., librabbitmq for amqp, ImageMagick for imagick)
3. Build PHP core — compiles PHP from source, then packages it into separate archives: common, cli, fpm, cgi, dev, pear
4. Build extensions — compiles each extension against the freshly built PHP, packages as individual archives
5. Upload to GitHub Releases — each PHP patch version gets its own release (e.g., php-8.5.4), old versions are preserved
6. Update index — regenerates index.json from all releases and commits it to the repository

Hosting

Packages are hosted as GitHub Release assets — there is no separate package server. When you run:

phm update

PHM downloads index.json from the repository. When you install a package:

phm install php8.5-cli

PHM downloads the .tar.zst archive directly from GitHub Releases.

Package Format

Each package is a zstd-compressed tar archive containing:

package.tar.zst
├── pkginfo.json    # Package metadata (name, version, dependencies)
└── files/
    └── opt/php/8.5/...  # Files to install

Platforms

Packages are built on macOS runners provided by GitHub Actions:

Platform	Runner	Status
Apple Silicon (arm64)	macos-latest	Available
Intel (amd64)	macos-15-intel	Available

Contributing

Want to add a new extension or report a build issue?

• Open an issue on the php-packages repository
• Extension build configs live in the extensions/ directory