php-makephar/README.md

MakePhar mk2

This is a rewrite of my old MakePhar utility, with cleaner code and added portability. Besides being able to pack executables, this version can also create libraries, such as portable plugins.

Executables

If your project is using composer, and your main stub is located in the source directory as specified in the composer.json, you can create a manifest easily:

$ makephar -n > makephar.sdl

Now, just update makephar.sdl to make sure the stub points to the executable stub. Here is an example:

phar "my-project.phar" {
  include {
    dir "src";
    dir "vendor";
  }
  stub "src/boot.php";
}

To build this into a .phar archive, just call makephar:

$ makephar

The output file my-project.phar should be created and be executable out of the box.

Libraries

Libraries work like executables, with the difference that they require a composer project, or rather it requires a file named vendor/autoload.php in the package.

To load your own bootstrap using composer, add them as file autoloaders:

...
"autoload": {
  "psr-4": ...
  "files": [ "src/my-library-stub.php" ]
}

Next, make sure you have a line in your makephar.sdl that reads:

library true;

You should now be able to create a library phar by invoking makephar.

It is recommended that you add a check in your main stub to make sure that the plugin or library has what is needed, such as checking a define or making sure that a method or class already exists.

Pro Tips

• You can have multiple phar blocks in your makephar.conf. This lets you build a main executable, libraries etc in one go. You currently can't pick the rule to build tho, but rather all defined phars will be built.
• MakePhar will minify your files using php_strip_whitespace() before adding them to the archive. This shouldn't be an issue, but if your code depends on a specific character index in a specific php file, you might want to use another tool for the time being.