Requirements

To compile and build PHP you need a Microsoft Development Environment. Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 is recommended. To extract the downloaded files you need a extraction utility (e.g.: Winzip). If you don't already have an unzip utility, you can get a free version from InfoZip.

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

• ..the win32 buildtools from the PHP site at http://www.php.net/extra/win32build.zip.

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

• If you plan to compile PHP as a Apache module you will also need the Apache sources.

Finally, you are going to need the source to PHP itself. You can get the latest development version using anonymous CVS, a snapshot or the most recent released source tarball.

Putting it all together

After downloading the required packages you have to extract them in a proper place.

• Create a working directory where all files end up after extracting, e.g: C:\work.

• Create the directory win32build under your working directory (C:\work) and unzip win32build.zip into it.

• Create the directory bindlib_w32 under your working directory (C:\work) and unzip bindlib_w32.zip into it.

• Extract the downloaded PHP source code into your working directory (C:\work).

+--c:\work
|  |
|  +--bindlib_w32
|  |  |
|  |  +--arpa
|  |  |
|  |  +--conf
|  |  |
|  |  +--...
|  |
|  +--php-4.x.x
|  |  |
|  |  +--build
|  |  |
|  |  +--...
|  |  |
|  |  +--win32
|  |  |
|  |  +--...
|  |
|  +--win32build
|  |  |
|  |  +--bin
|  |  |
|  |  +--include
|  |  |
|  |  +--lib

Configure MVC ++

The next step is to configure MVC ++ to prepare for compiling. 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. Your entries should look like this:

• Executable files: c:\work\win32build\bin, Cygwin users: cygwin\bin

• Include files: c:\work\win32build\include

• Library files: c:\work\win32build\lib

Build resolv.lib

You must build the resolv.lib library. 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, navigate to c:\work\bindlib_w32 and select bindlib.dsw. 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 commands:

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

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

Compiling

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

• For GUI users, launch VC++, and then select File => Open Workspace and select c:\work\php-4.x.x\win32\php4ts.dsw . Then select Build=>Set Active Configuration and select the desired configuration, either php4ts - Win32 Debug_TS or php4ts - Win32 Release_TS. 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 commands from the c:\work\php-4.x.x\win32 directory:

  • 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 c:\work\php-4.x.x.\Debug_TS or Release_TS subdirectories.

It is possible to do minor customization to the build process by editing the main/config.win32.h file. For example you can change the default location of php.ini, the built-in extensions, and the default location for your extensions.

Next you may want to build the CLI version which is designed to use PHP from the command line. The steps are the same as for building the CGI version, except you have to select the php4ts_cli - Win32 Debug_TS or php4ts_cli - Win32 Release_TS project file. After a successful compiling run you will find the php.exe in either the directory Release_TS\cli\ or Debug_TS\cli\.

In order to build the SAPI module (php4isapi.dll) for integrating PHP with Microsoft IIS, set your active configuration to php4isapi-whatever-config and build the desired dll.