The PHP runtime

The PHP runtime is the software stack responsible for installing your application code and dependencies, and then running that application in the flexible environment.

PHP versions

PHP 8.4 uses buildpacks. For the full list of supported PHP versions, and their corresponding Ubuntu version, see the Runtime support schedule.

To use a supported PHP version, you must:

  • Install gcloud CLI version 420.0.0 or later. You can update your CLI tooling by running the gcloud components update command. To view your installed version, you can run the gcloud version command.

  • Include the runtime_config and operating_system settings in your app.yaml file to specify an operating system.

  • Declare the document root for your application in the app.yaml file:

      runtime: php
  env: flex

  runtime_config:
      operating_system: "ubuntu22"
      document_root: "web"

    Although you can specify the project root (.) directory as the document root, we recommend that you use a subdirectory for the document_root setting.

    The source code is located in the /workspace directory instead of the root directory (/). If you override any configuration, the NGINX or supervisor processes reference your configuration file in this directory. To update corresponding references, you must:

    • Update any include statements in your NGINX configuration to be relative to /workspace instead of /etc/nginx.

    • Some files such as gzip_params are not included. To reference these files, include your own or copy from GitHub. Files such as mime.types and fastcgi_params are available in /etc/nginx directory.

    • Some NGINX modules such as nginx-plus-module-ndk are not installed. Set the $docroot value or add the value manually in your NGINX configuration file.

  • Optionally, you can specify a runtime version by:

    • Including the runtime_version setting in your app.yaml. By default, the latest PHP version is used if the runtime_version setting is not specified.

      • To specify PHP 8.4 on Ubuntu 22:

        runtime: php
env: flex

runtime_config:
    operating_system: "ubuntu22"
    runtime_version: "8.4"
    document_root: .

      • To specify the latest supported PHP version on Ubuntu 22:

          runtime: php
  env: flex

  runtime_config:
      operating_system: "ubuntu22"
      document_root: .

    • Including a PHP version in the composer.json file.

      {
    "require": {
        "php": "8.4.*"
    }
}

    See the app.yaml reference for more information.

Previous runtime versions

To use PHP version 7.3 and earlier, you must:

  • Declare the document root for your application. You can do this in your app.yaml file:

    runtime: php
env: flex
api_version: 1

runtime_config:
  document_root: .

    Although you can specify the project root (.) directory as the document root, we recommend that you use a subdirectory for the document_root setting.

  • Specify a PHP version in the composer.json file to prevent your application from automatically upgrading when a new version of PHP becomes available.

    {
    "require": {
        "php": "7.3.*"
    }
}

Support for other PHP runtimes

If you need to use a PHP version that isn't supported, you can create a custom runtime and select a valid base image with the PHP version you need.

For Google-supplied base images or Docker PHP base images, see Building custom runtimes.

Customize NGINX

To define a custom configuration file, include the nginx-app.conf file in the root directory of your project.

By default, the framework front controller uses the index.php file. You might need to change this to something different for your project. For instance, the Symfony framework uses app.php instead of index.php. You can change the filename in the runtime_config section of your app.yaml file:

runtime: php
env: flex

runtime_config:
  operating_system: "ubuntu22"
  document_root: .
  front_controller_file: app.php

For version 7.3 and earlier, the nginx-app.conf configuration file is included in the server section of the main NGINX configuration file. For example, the default configuration php-app.conf file, contains the following:

location / {
# try to serve files directly, fallback to the front controller
try_files $uri /$front_controller_file$is_args$args;
}

To define a custom configuration file, create the nginx-app.conf file in the root directory of your project. The runtime overrides the default file with the file you provide.

By default, the framework front controller uses the index.php file. You might need to change this to something different for your project. For instance, the Symfony framework uses app.php instead of index.php. You can change the filename in the runtime_config section of your app.yaml file:

runtime: php
env: flex

runtime_config:
  document_root: .
  front_controller_file: app.php

OPcache

Enable OPcache in your php.ini file. See the official doc for how to configure OPcache.

To disable OPcache, create or edit the file php.ini with the following line:

opcache.enable=0

Dependencies

The runtime looks for a composer.json file in your application's source directory and uses composer to install any dependencies before starting your application. For more information on declaring and managing packages, see Using PHP Libraries.

Using PHP extensions

The following PHP extensions are pre-installed and enabled on the system:

Supported PHP versions

You can enable the following extensions using the php.ini file:

v7.3 and earlier

The following PHP extensions are disabled by default. You can enable the following extensions in the using the php.ini file:

To enable an extension, add a php.ini file in the root of your application with the extension directive:

; Enable the Redis extension
extension=redis.so

; Enable the OpenTelemetry extension (must be in an opentelemetry section)
[opentelemetry]
extension=opentelemetry.so

Alternatively, you can also enable an extension by adding a require to your composer.json:

{
    "require": {
        "ext-redis": "*"
    }
}

These packages allow the installation of most popular PHP extensions. If your application requires additional operating-system level dependencies, you must extend the PHP runtime or use a custom runtime to install the appropriate packages.

HTTPS and forwarding proxies

App Engine terminates the HTTPS connection at the load balancer and forwards the request to your application. The NGINX server is configured to set the HTTPS environment variable ($_SERVER["HTTPS"]) to on when the request is made via HTTPS.

Some applications also need to ascertain the user's IP address. This is available in the standard X-Forwarded-For header.

Disabled functions

The following functions are disabled with the disable_functions directive in php.ini:

  • exec
  • passthru
  • proc_open
  • proc_close
  • shell_exec
  • show_source
  • symlink
  • system

If you need any of the above functions, add a php.ini file in the root of your application and change the disable_functions directive. Alternatively, set whitelist_functions in the runtime_config section in app.yaml to a comma-delimited list of functions to allow.

For PHP version 7.3 and earlier, the suhosin Security extension is installed and configured by default to run in simulation mode. Simulation mode logs the use of potentially dangerous functions, which will show in the Cloud Logging UI. Turning the simulation mode off will make your application exit when a potentially dangerous function is used. To enable this additional security feature, add a php.ini in your project root with the following option:

; Prevent the use of potentially dangerous functions rather than logging them
suhosin.simulation = Off

Patched functions

The function parse_str is patched and the second parameter is mandatory. If you call parse_str with only one parameter, it will throw a warning and the function will not be called.

Available configurations

You can include the following configurations in the runtime_config section:

NameDescriptionDefault value
document_root Specifies DOCUMENT_ROOT for nginx and PHP. You must use a relative path from the project root directory. Required field
composer_flags You can override some of the composer flags with this key. --no-dev --prefer-dist
enable_stackdriver_integration Supported only for version 7.3 and earlier. When set to true, the runtime will automatically enable Google Cloud Observability integration. This configuration requires google/cloud package v0.33 or higher. false
skip_lockdown_document_root Supported only for version 7.3 and earlier. By default, the runtime will set a strict read-only permission on all the files and directories under the document_root directory. When set to true, the runtime will skip changing the permission. false
whitelist_functions Supported only for version 7.3 and earlier. A comma-separated list of function names to allowlist. An empty string
front_controller_file Default PHP file name for the directory access. index.php
nginx_conf_http_include Filename of a partial nginx config, which will be included in the http section in the main nginx config file. nginx-http.conf
nginx_conf_include Filename of a partial nginx config which will be included in the server section in the main nginx config file. nginx-app.conf
nginx_conf_override Filename of a user supplied nginx configuration file, which will be used as the nginx main configuration file. nginx.conf
php_fpm_conf_override Filename of a user supplied php-fpm configuration file, which will be included at the bottom of the [app] section so that it will override the existing configurations. php-fpm.conf
php_ini_override Filename of a user supplied PHP configuration file. php.ini
supervisord_conf_addition Filename of a user supplied supervisord config file, which will be included in the main supervisord config file. additional-supervisord.conf
supervisord_conf_override Filename of a user supplied supervisord config file, which will override the main supervisord config file. supervisord.conf

You can control whether Nginx serves static files for matching URIs by setting the NGINX_SERVES_STATIC_FILES environment variable in the build_env_variables section of your app.yaml file:

runtime: php
env: flex

runtime_config:
  document_root: "web"
  operating_system: "ubuntu22"

build_env_variables:
  NGINX_SERVES_STATIC_FILES: true

Configuring supervisord in the PHP runtime

The App Engine flexible environment uses supervisord to manage processes. By default, supervisord runs nginx and php-fpm to run PHP web applications; however, some applications need to run external processes. Also such applications sometimes even do not need nginx nor php-fpm.

If you want to add a process managed by supervisord, add a file named additional-supervisord.conf to the project root directory. The following is an example configuration file content for this case:

[program:quote-updater]
command = php %(ENV_APP_DIR)s/worker.php
stdout_logfile = /dev/stdout
stdout_logfile_maxbytes=0
stderr_logfile = /dev/stderr
stderr_logfile_maxbytes=0
user = www-data
autostart = true
autorestart = true
priority = 5
stopwaitsecs = 20

If you want to replace nginx and php-fpm with your process, add a file named supervisord.conf to the project root directory. The following is an example configuration file content for this case:

[supervisord]
nodaemon = true
logfile = /dev/null
logfile_maxbytes = 0
pidfile = /var/run/supervisord.pid

[program:react-server]
command = php %(ENV_APP_DIR)s/index.php
stdout_logfile = /dev/stdout
stdout_logfile_maxbytes=0
stderr_logfile = /dev/stderr
stderr_logfile_maxbytes=0
user = www-data
autostart = true
autorestart = true
priority = 5
stopwaitsecs = 20

Extending the runtime

The App Engine flexible environment PHP runtime can be used to create a custom runtime. See Customizing the PHP Runtime for more information.

Environment variables

The following environment variables are set by the runtime environment:

Environment variable Description
GAE_INSTANCE The name of the current instance.
GAE_MEMORY_MB The amount of memory available to the application process.
GAE_SERVICE The service name specified in your application's app.yaml file, or if no service name is specified, it is set to default.
GAE_VERSION The version label of the current application.
GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT The Project ID associated with your application, which is visible in the Google Cloud console
PORT The port that will receive HTTP requests.

You can set additional environment variables with app.yaml.

Metadata server

Each instance of your application can use the Compute Engine metadata server to query information about the instance, including its host name, external IP address, instance ID, custom metadata, and service account information. App Engine doesn't allow you to set custom metadata for each instance, but you can set project-wide custom metadata and read it from your App Engine and Compute Engine instances.

This example function uses the metadata server to get the external IP address of an instance:

function get_external_ip_using_google_cloud()
{
    $metadata = new Google\Cloud\Core\Compute\Metadata();
    $externalIp = $metadata->get(
        'instance/network-interfaces/0/access-configs/0/external-ip');

    return $externalIp;
}

function get_external_ip_using_curl()
{
    $url = 'http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/' .
        'instance/network-interfaces/0/access-configs/0/external-ip';

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Metadata-Flavor: Google'));
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    return curl_exec($ch);
}