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# Installation on Windows systems

This section applies to Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP. Do not expect PHP to work on 16 bit platforms such as Windows 3.1. Sometimes we refer to the supported Windows platforms as Win32.

There are two main ways to install PHP for Windows: either manually or by using the InstallShield installer.

If you have Microsoft Visual Studio, you can also build PHP from the original source code.

Once you have PHP installed on your Windows system, you may also want to load various extensions for added functionality.

## Windows InstallShield

The Windows PHP installer available from the downloads page at http://www.php.net/, this installs the CGI version of PHP and, for IIS, PWS, and Xitami, configures the web server as well. Also note, that while the InstallShield installer is an easy way to make PHP work, it is restricted in many aspects, as automatic setup of extensions for example is not supported.

Install your selected HTTP server on your system and make sure that it works.

Run the executable installer and follow the instructions provided by the installation wizard. Two types of installation are supported - standard, which provides sensible defaults for all the settings it can, and advanced, which asks questions as it goes along.

The installation wizard gathers enough information to set up the `php.ini` file and configure the web server to use PHP. For IIS and also PWS on NT Workstation, a list of all the nodes on the server with script map settings is displayed, and you can choose those nodes to which you wish to add the PHP script mappings.

Once the installation has completed the installer will inform you if you need to restart your system, restart the server, or just start using PHP.

Warning
Be aware, that this setup of PHP is not secure. If you would like to have a secure PHP setup, you'd better go on the manual way, and set every option carefully. This automatically working setup gives you an instantly working PHP installation, but it is not meant to be used on online servers.

## Manual Installation Steps

This install guide will help you manually install and configure PHP on your Windows webserver. You need to download the zip binary distribution from the downloads page at http://www.php.net/. The original version of this guide was compiled by Bob Silva, and can be found at http://www.umesd.k12.or.us/php/win32install.html.

This guide provides manual installation support for:

- Personal Web Server 3 and 4 or newer

- Internet Information Server 3 and 4 or newer

- Apache 1.3.x

- OmniHTTPd 2.0b1 and up

- Oreilly Website Pro

- Xitami

- Netscape Enterprise Server, iPlanet

PHP 4 for Windows comes in two flavours - a CGI executable (php.exe), and several SAPI modules (for example: php4isapi.dll). The latter form is new to PHP 4, and provides significantly improved performance and some new functionality.

Warning
However, please note that the SAPI modules are NOT yet considered to be production quality. In particular, with the ISAPI module, you are likely to encounter serious reliability problems especially on platforms older than W2K - you may witness a lot of server 500 errors and suffer from other server modules such as ASP also failing. You have been warned! The reason for this is that the PHP SAPI modules are using the thread-safe version of the PHP code, which is new to PHP 4, and has not yet been tested and pounded enough to be considered completely stable, and there are actually a few known bugs. On the other hand, some people have reported very good results with the SAPI modules, even though we're not aware of anyone actually running it on a production site. In short - your mileage may vary; If you need absolute stability, trade the performance of the SAPI modules with the stability of the CGI executable.

If you choose one of the SAPI modules and use Windows 95, be sure to download the DCOM update from the Microsoft DCOM pages. For the ISAPI module, an ISAPI 4.0 compliant Web server is required (tested on IIS 4.0, PWS 4.0 and IIS 5.0). IIS 3.0 is NOT supported. You should download and install the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack with IIS 4.0 if you want native PHP support.

The following steps should be performed on all installations before the server specific instructions.

- Extract the distribution file to a directory of your choice. `c:\php\` is a good start.

- You need to ensure that the dlls which PHP uses can be found. The precise DLLs involved depend on which web server you use and whether you want to run PHP as a CGI or as a server module. `php4ts.dll` is always used. If you are using a server module (e.g. ISAPI or Apache) then you will need the relevent DLL from the `sapi` folder. If you are using any PHP extension DLLs then you will need those as well. To make sure that the DLLs can be found, you can either copy them to the system directory (e.g. `winnt/system32` or `windows/system`) or you can make sure that they live in the same directory as the main PHP executable or DLL your web server will use (e.g. php.exe, php4apache.dll).

  The PHP binary, the SAPI modules, and some extensions rely on external DLLs for execution. Make sure that these DLLs in the distribution exist in a directory that is in the Windows PATH. The best bet to do it is to copy the files below into your system directory, which is typically:

  c:\windows\system for Windows 9x/Me
  c:\winnt\system32 for Windows NT/2000/XP

  The files to copy are:

  'php4ts.dll', if it already exists there, overwrite it
  The files in your distribution's 'dlls' directory. If you have them already installed on your system, overwrite them only if something doesn't work correctly (Before overwriting them, it is a good idea to make a backup of them, or move them to another folder - just in case something goes wrong).

  Download the latest version of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) for your platform, especially if you use Microsoft Windows 9x/NT4. MDAC is available at http://www.microsoft.com/data/.

- Copy your choosen ini file (see below) to your '%WINDOWS%' directory on Windows 9x/Me or to your '%SYSTEMROOT%' directory under Windows NT/2000/XP and rename it to `php.ini`. Your '%WINDOWS%' or '%SYSTEMROOT%' directory is typically:

  c:\windows for Windows 9x/Me
  c:\winnt or c:\winnt40 for NT/2000/XP servers

  There are two ini files distributed in the zip file, `php.ini-dist` and `php.ini-optimized`. We advise you to use `php.ini-optimized`, because we optimized the default settings in this file for performance, and security. The best is to study all the ini settings and set every element manually yourself. If you would like to achive the best security, then this is the way for you, although PHP works fine with these default ini files.

- Edit your new 'php.ini' file:

  - You will need to change the 'extension_dir' setting to point to your php-install-dir, or where you have placed your 'php_*.dll' files. ex: c:\php\extensions

  - If you are using OmniHTTPd, do not follow the next step. Set the 'doc_root' to point to your webservers document_root. For example: c:\apache\htdocs or c:\webroot

  - Choose which extensions you would like to load when PHP starts. See the section about Windows extensions, about how to set up one, and what is already built in. Note that on a new installation it is advisable to first get PHP working and tested without any extensions before enabling them in `php.ini`.

  - On PWS and IIS, you can set the `browscap.ini` to point to: 'c:\windows\system\inetsrv\browscap.ini' on Windows 9x/Me and 'c:\winnt\system32\inetsrv\browscap.ini' on NT/2000/XP Server.

  - Note that the `mibs` directory supplied with the Windows distribution contains support files for SNMP. This directory should be moved to `DRIVE:\usr\mibs` (`DRIVE` being the drive where PHP is installed.)

## Building from source

Before getting started, it is worthwhile answering the question: "Why is building on Windows so hard?" Two reasons come to mind:

1. Windows does not (yet) enjoy a large community of developers who are willing to freely share their source. As a direct result, the necessary investment in infrastructure required to support such development hasn't been made. By and large, what is available has been made possible by the porting of necessary utilities from Unix. Don't be surprised if some of this heritage shows through from time to time.

2. Pretty much all of the instructions that follow are of the "set and forget" variety. So sit back and try follow the instructions below as faithfully as you can.

### Preparations

Before you get started, you have a lot to download...

- For starters, get the Cygwin toolkit from the closest cygwin mirror site. This will provide you most of the popular GNU utilities used by the build process.

- Download the rest of the build tools you will need from the PHP site at http://www.php.net/extra/win32build.zip.

- Get the source code for the DNS name resolver used by PHP at http://www.php.net/extra/bindlib_w32.zip. This is a replacement for the `resolv.lib` library included in `win32build.zip`.

- If you don't already have an unzip utility, you will need one. A free version is available from InfoZip.

Finally, you are going to need the source to PHP 4 itself. You can get the latest development version using anonymous CVS. If you get a snapshot or a source tarball, you not only will have to untar and ungzip it, but you will have to convert the bare linefeeds to crlf's in the `*.dsp` and `*.dsw` files before Microsoft Visual C++ will have anything to do with them.

> Note: Place the `Zend` and `TSRM` directories inside the `php4` directory in order for the projects to be found during the build process.

### Putting it all together

- Follow the instructions for installing the unzip utility of your choosing.

- Execute `setup.exe` and follow the installation instructions. If you choose to install to a path other than `c:\cygnus`, let the build process know by setting the Cygwin environment variable. On Windows 95/98 setting an environment variable can be done by placing a line in your autoexec.bat. On Windows NT, go to My Computer => Control Panel => System and select the environment tab.

  Warning
  Make a temporary directory for Cygwin to use, otherwise many commands (particularly bison) will fail. On Windows 95/98, `mkdir C:\TMP`. For Windows NT, `mkdir %SystemDrive%\tmp`.

- Make a directory and unzip `win32build.zip` into it.

- Launch Microsoft Visual C++, and from the menu select Tools => Options. In the dialog, select the directories tab. Sequentially change the dropdown to Executables, Includes, and Library files, and ensure that `cygwin\bin`, `win32build\include`, and `win32build\lib` are in each list, respectively. (To add an entry, select a blank line at the end of the list and begin typing). Typical entries will look like this:

  - `c:\cygnus\bin`

  - `c:\php-win32build\include`

  - `c:\php-win32build\lib`

  Press OK, and exit out of Visual C++.

- Make another directory and unzip `bindlib_w32.zip` into it. Decide whether you want to have debug symbols available (bindlib - Win32 Debug) or not (bindlib - Win32 Release). Build the appropriate configuration:

  - For GUI users, launch VC++, and then select File => Open Workspace and select bindlib. Then select Build=>Set Active Configuration and select the desired configuration. Finally select Build=>Rebuild All.

  - For command line users, make sure that you either have the C++ environment variables registered, or have run vcvars.bat, and then execute one of the following:

    - `msdev bindlib.dsp /MAKE "bindlib - Win32 Debug"`

    - `msdev bindlib.dsp /MAKE "bindlib - Win32 Release"`

  - At this point, you should have a usable `resolv.lib` in either your `Debug` or `Release` subdirectories. Copy this file into your `win32build\lib` directory over the file by the same name found in there.

### Compiling

The best way to get started is to build the standalone/CGI version.

- For GUI users, launch VC++, and then select File => Open Workspace and select php4ts. Then select Build=>Set Active Configuration and select the desired configuration. Finally select Build=>Rebuild All.

- For command line users, make sure that you either have the C++ environment variables registered, or have run vcvars.bat, and then execute one of the following:

  - `msdev php4ts.dsp /MAKE "php4ts - Win32 Debug_TS"`

  - `msdev php4ts.dsp /MAKE "php4ts - Win32 Release_TS"`

  - At this point, you should have a usable `php.exe` in either your `Debug_TS` or `Release_TS` subdirectories.

Repeat the above steps with `php4isapi.dsp` (which can be found in `sapi\isapi`) in order to build the code necessary for integrating PHP with Microsoft IIS.

## Installation of Windows extensions

After installing PHP and a webserver on Windows, you will probably want to install some extensions for added functionality. The following table describes some of the extensions available. You can choose which extensions you would like to load when PHP starts by uncommenting the: 'extension=php_*.dll' lines in `php.ini`. You can also load a module dynamically in your script using dl().

The DLLs for PHP extensions are prefixed with 'php_' in PHP 4 (and 'php3_' in PHP 3). This prevents confusion between PHP extensions and their supporting libraries.

> Note: In PHP 4.0.6 BCMath, Calendar, COM, FTP, MySQL, ODBC, PCRE, Session, WDDX and XML support is built in. You don't need to load any additional extensions in order to use these functions. See your distributions `README.txt` or `install.txt` for a list of built in modules.

> Note: Some of these extensions need extra dlls to work. Couple of them can be found in the distribution package, in the 'dlls' folder but some, for example Oracle (php_oci8.dll) require dlls which are not bundled with the distribution package.

> Copy the bundled dlls from 'dlls' folder to your Windows PATH, safe places are:

> c:\windows\system for Windows 9x/Me
> c:\winnt\system32 for Windows NT/2000/XP

> If you have them already installed on your system, overwrite them only if something doesn't work correctly (Before overwriting them, it is a good idea to make a backup of them, or move them to another folder - just in case something goes wrong).

Table 2-1. PHP Extensions

Extension | Description | Notes
--- | --- | ---
php_bz2.dll | bzip2 compression functions | None
php_calendar.dll | Calendar conversion functions | Built in since PHP 4.0.3
php_cpdf.dll | ClibPDF functions | None
php3_crypt.dll | Crypt functions | unknown
php_ctype.dll | ctype family functions | None
php_curl.dll | CURL, Client URL library functions | Requires: libeay32.dll, ssleay32.dll (bundled)
php_cybercash.dll | Cybercash payment functions | None
php_db.dll | DBM functions | Deprecated. Use DBA instead (php_dba.dll)
php_dba.dll | DBA: DataBase (dbm-style) Abstraction layer functions | None
php_dbase.dll | dBase functions | None
php3_dbm.dll | Berkeley DB2 library | unknown
php_domxml.dll | DOM XML functions | Requires: libxml2.dll (bundled)
php_dotnet.dll | .NET functions | None
php_exif.dll | Read EXIF headers from JPEG | None
php_fbsql.dll | FrontBase functions | None
php_fdf.dll | FDF: Forms Data Format functions. | Requires: fdftk.dll (bundled)
php_filepro.dll | filePro functions | Read-only access
php_ftp.dll | FTP functions | Built-in since PHP 4.0.3
php_gd.dll | GD library image functions | None
php_gettext.dll | Gettext functions | Requires: gnu_gettext.dll (bundled)
php_hyperwave.dll | HyperWave functions | None
php_iconv.dll | ICONV characterset conversion | Requires: iconv-1.3.dll (bundled)
php_ifx.dll | Informix functions | Requires: Informix libraries
php_iisfunc.dll | IIS management functions | None
php_imap.dll | IMAP POP3 and NNTP functions | PHP 3: php3_imap4r1.dll
php_ingres.dll | Ingres II functions | Requires: Ingres II libraries
php_interbase.dll | InterBase functions | Requires: gds32.dll (bundled)
php_java.dll | Java extension | Requires: jvm.dll (bundled)
php_ldap.dll | LDAP functions | Requires: libsasl.dll (bundled)
php_mhash.dll | Mhash Functions | None
php_ming.dll | Ming functions for Flash | None
php_msql.dll | mSQL functions | Requires: msql.dll (bundled)
php3_msql1.dll | mSQL 1 client | unknown
php3_msql2.dll | mSQL 2 client | unknown
php_mssql.dll | MSSQL functions | Requires: ntwdblib.dll (bundled)
php3_mysql.dll | MySQL functions | Built-in in PHP 4
php3_nsmail.dll | Netscape mail functions | unknown
php3_oci73.dll | Oracle functions | unknown
php_oci8.dll | Oracle 8 functions | Requires: Oracle 8 client libraries
php_openssl.dll | OpenSSL functions | Requires: libeay32.dll (bundled)
php_oracle.dll | Oracle functions | Requires: Oracle 7 client libraries
php_pdf.dll | PDF functions | None
php_pgsql.dll | PostgreSQL functions | None
php_printer.dll | Printer functions | None
php_sablot.dll | XSLT functions | Requires: sablot.dll (bundled)
php_snmp.dll | SNMP get and walk functions | NT only!
php_sybase_ct.dll | Sybase functions | Requires: Sybase client libraries
php_yaz.dll | YAZ functions | None
php_zlib.dll | ZLib compression functions | None

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