Appropriate PHP Extensions

[Apparition]

My host currently uses PHP 5.6 by default, which I know is no longer supported. I can switch it to PHP 7.1 or PHP 7.2, but I have no idea which extensions to select or deselect. The default PHP extension selection is below. Any suggestions?

 

[Paul M]

Hard to say as some software will require specific extensions.

At the very least I would say bcmath, gd, json, mysqli, mysqlind, mbstring, mcrypt, opcache

Maybe soap, sockets, xmlreader, xmlrpc, xmlrpc.

Again it really depends on what your system needs to run.

 

[eva2000]

My usual list for when i setup my own Centmin Mod LEMP stack with PHP 7.2 or 7.3 (php-fpm) right now

php -m

[PHP Modules]
bcmath
brotli
bz2
calendar
Core
ctype
curl
date
dom
enchant
exif
fileinfo
filter
ftp
gd
geoip
gettext
gmp
hash
iconv
igbinary
imagick
imap
intl
json
ldap
libxml
lz4
mailparse
mbstring
mcrypt
memcache
memcached
mysqli
mysqlnd
openssl
pcntl
pcre
PDO
pdo_mysql
pdo_sqlite
Phar
posix
pspell
readline
redis
Reflection
session
shmop
SimpleXML
snmp
soap
sockets
SPL
sqlite3
standard
sysvmsg
sysvsem
sysvshm
tidy
tokenizer
xml
xmlreader
xmlrpc
xmlwriter
xsl
Zend OPcache
zip
zlib
zstd

 

[Paul M]

Wow, I dont use about 2/3rds of them, what on earth are you running ?

 

[eva2000]

Wow, I dont use about 2/3rds of them, what on earth are you running ?

As Centmin Mod LEMP stack is for everyone, need to cater for everyones requirements as everyone uses different web app/frameworks etc. Though some listed above are additional to the defaults in Centmin Mod, as I need them for my PHP web app/scripts.

For example brotli PHP extension needed as I made a Wordpress Autoptimize hook plugin which enables pre-gzip compressed optimised css/js for Nginx pre-gzip static compressed file serving for better performance. Then with help of Wordpress Autoptimize author he provided me code/patch to enable pre-compress brotli compressed hook for css/js generated by Autoptimize plugin to use with Nginx Brotli compression module but this needs brotli PHP extension to be able pre-compress Autopimize generated css/js files.

This means Nginx with Brotli compression enabled can serve pre-compressed Brotli compressed css/js files and performance difference is huge - up to ~16x times better performance throughput and ~92% faster response time latency than dynamic on the fly Brotli compressed css/js files https://community.centminmod.com/threads/nginx-with-cloudflare-zlib-fork-vs-nxg_brotli-compression-level-tests.13820/#post-63601

Example of wordpress Autoptimized generated css/js files precompressed with gzip and brolti and conditionally served via Nginx depending on if browser supports brotli and fallback to gzip

brotli PHP extension usage to pre-compress css/js with .br extension

ls -lah wp-content/cache/autoptimize/{css,js}
wp-content/cache/autoptimize/css:
total 372K
drwxr-sr-x 2 nginx nginx 4.0K Oct 16 14:55 .
drwxr-sr-x 4 nginx nginx 4.0K Oct 16 14:55 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  48K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_f735042a33273526fb043c5a87f019d8.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 6.6K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_f735042a33273526fb043c5a87f019d8.css.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 7.6K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_f735042a33273526fb043c5a87f019d8.css.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 151K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_single_ced9eb36ba33532225a6f6a5b9c30ac8.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  19K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_single_ced9eb36ba33532225a6f6a5b9c30ac8.css.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  22K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_single_ced9eb36ba33532225a6f6a5b9c30ac8.css.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 6.2K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_02186534fc2cb75d30ffeb4e4060f935.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1.1K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_02186534fc2cb75d30ffeb4e4060f935.css.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1.3K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_02186534fc2cb75d30ffeb4e4060f935.css.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  37K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_11ba90148181e3f70031a87c63769326.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 4.8K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_11ba90148181e3f70031a87c63769326.css.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 5.5K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_11ba90148181e3f70031a87c63769326.css.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  277 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c623142bb5ed0b70cb3fd1fc009ac97c.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  139 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c623142bb5ed0b70cb3fd1fc009ac97c.css.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  203 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c623142bb5ed0b70cb3fd1fc009ac97c.css.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 5.1K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c94c9f38516a99b1f2ab4bfb5da9840d.css
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1.3K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c94c9f38516a99b1f2ab4bfb5da9840d.css.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1.6K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c94c9f38516a99b1f2ab4bfb5da9840d.css.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  189 Jun 26 22:11 index.html

wp-content/cache/autoptimize/js:
total 588K
drwxr-sr-x 2 nginx nginx 4.0K Oct 16 14:55 .
drwxr-sr-x 4 nginx nginx 4.0K Oct 16 14:55 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 162K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_cffafa51021979d9075b05e79de8dde5.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  41K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_cffafa51021979d9075b05e79de8dde5.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  46K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_cffafa51021979d9075b05e79de8dde5.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  20K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_14b16c0a613dccf79fea485ec09717a1.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 6.3K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_14b16c0a613dccf79fea485ec09717a1.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 7.0K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_14b16c0a613dccf79fea485ec09717a1.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  193 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_4ec3b19ffe467100c29c66bcc97ebc42.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  136 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_4ec3b19ffe467100c29c66bcc97ebc42.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  173 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_4ec3b19ffe467100c29c66bcc97ebc42.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1.2K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_4fb38de1728cf7f23aa8b49d85bddde5.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  496 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_4fb38de1728cf7f23aa8b49d85bddde5.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  606 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_4fb38de1728cf7f23aa8b49d85bddde5.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 9.9K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_7121994eec5320fbe6586463bf9651c2.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 3.5K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_7121994eec5320fbe6586463bf9651c2.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 4.0K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_7121994eec5320fbe6586463bf9651c2.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1014 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_7567776c328ea6a29916d6cbb521bed6.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  398 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_7567776c328ea6a29916d6cbb521bed6.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  518 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_7567776c328ea6a29916d6cbb521bed6.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 121K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_b2d9157ba53608c1226db7a16568b0e8.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  29K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_b2d9157ba53608c1226db7a16568b0e8.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  32K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_b2d9157ba53608c1226db7a16568b0e8.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 1.3K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c2940304f2c898ad4391a9ea96e37e64.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  471 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c2940304f2c898ad4391a9ea96e37e64.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  561 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c2940304f2c898ad4391a9ea96e37e64.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  197 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c5935bade23936a28a1b0f0eacd59912.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  145 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c5935bade23936a28a1b0f0eacd59912.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  176 Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_c5935bade23936a28a1b0f0eacd59912.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 7.9K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_d0c2c0d7e37652e66657c8c8d6376442.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 2.2K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_d0c2c0d7e37652e66657c8c8d6376442.js.br
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx 2.5K Oct 16 14:55 autoptimize_snippet_d0c2c0d7e37652e66657c8c8d6376442.js.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 nginx nginx  189 Jun 26 22:11 index.html

Then pair Nginx brotli served files with right compiler and cpu i.e. Intel Skylake and Brotli performance acceleration is up to ~40% faster than default Nginx gzip compressed files https://community.centminmod.com/threads/testing-gcc-8-clang-5-6-7-compiler-for-centmin-mod-nginx-php-fpm.13726/#post-70527

Just adding that extra brotli PHP extension and being able to properly utilise it on PHP and Nginx level will accelerate Wordpress performance way more than the extra resource usage from loading the brotli PHP extension or all those extra PHP extensions


Then zstd PHP extension useful if your PHP web apps use it, I use zstd compression to replace gzip/zlib where possible i.e tar 1.3.1 with native zstd compression support results in much faster tar compressed backup and restore than tar with gzip, bzip2, and xz compression and with right parameters has better compression ratio than gzip = smaller compressed file sizes https://community.centminmod.com/threads/custom-tar-archiver-rpm-build-with-facebook-zstd-compression-support.16243/ and even can switch nginx and php-fpm log file rotation from gzip to zstd compression for smaller log files. There's work underway for zstd for HTTP encoding/compression (RFC 8478) along with existing gzip and brotli and already work on Nginx zstd bindings too. Eventually, Wordpress Autoptimize plugin could pre-compress gzip, brotli and zstd files and serve them with Nginx gzip, brotli and eventually zstd modules

 

[dtdesign]

Better late than never, you should tick at least these extensions in order to run our software:

• dom
• fileinfo
• gd
• json
• mbstring
• mcrypt
• mysqli (not required by us, but since people run other software on the same webspace…)
• mysqlnd (a bit unclear because this extension sometimes overlaps with the PDO mysql stuff)
• nd_pdo_mysql (THIS is the non garbage pdo_mysql driver)
• opcache (optional, because you don't want your page to be slow for no reason, right?)
• pdo
• pdo_mysql (DO NOT PICK THIS! Use nd_pdo_mysql instead, because this one is the broken and ancient MySQL PDO lib)
• sockets
• xmlwriter
• xsl
• zip

You could also use `imagick`, which offers superior image manipulation features, however, you want to enable it too but not instead of `gd`. The reason is the same as for `mysqli`.

There are two extensions on the list that you never want to enable:

• memcache <-- Ancient and broken extension, memcached (notice the trailing `d`) is the actively maintained and working one.
• suhosin <-- Garbage extension, enable this if you're bored and want to watch your webspace burn to the ground.