iceframework / zephir-parser

2.8.0 2026-09-16 07:29 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.0

Requires (Dev)

• phpunit/phpunit: >=4.7.5 <6.0.0

MIT

• Zephir Team

• php
• extension
• zephir

Published on Packagist.org on 2026-09-16 07:38 UTC

README

The Zephir Parser delivered as a C extension for the PHP language.

Supported PHP versions: 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5

Get Started

Build Requirements

Prerequisite packages are:

• OS: Linux || Solaris || FreeBSD || macOS || Windows
• Compiler: g++ >= 4.4 || clang++ >= 3.x || vc++ >= 11
• re2c >= 0.13.6

To build extension from the source you will need the PHP development headers. If PHP was manually installed, these should be available by default. Otherwise, you will need to fetch them from a repository.

PECL

pecl install zephir_parser

Windows

To install Zephir Parser on Windows:

1. Download Zephir Parser for Windows
2. Extract the DLL file and copy it to your PHP extensions directory
3. Edit your php.ini file and add this line:

   [Zephir Parser]
   extension=php_zephir_parser.dll

Linux

On a Linux/Unix-based platform you can easily compile and install the extension from sources.

For Linux/Unix-based based systems you'll need also:

• GNU make 3.81 or later
• autoconf 2.31 or later
• automake 1.14 or later

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install php7.0-dev gcc make re2c autoconf automake

Suse

sudo zypper install php7.0-devel gcc make re2c autoconf automake

CentOS/Fedora/RHEL

sudo yum install php-devel gcc make re2c autoconf automake

General Compilation

Follow these instructions to generate a binary extension for your platform:

git clone git://github.com/zephir-lang/php-zephir-parser.git
cd php-zephir-parser
phpize
./configure
make
sudo make install

If you have multiple/specific PHP versions installed, you may be able to specify for which installation you'd like to build by using the --with-php-config option during configuration. For example:

git clone git://github.com/zephir-lang/php-zephir-parser.git
cd php-zephir-parser
/usr/local/bin/phpize
./configure --with-php-config=/usr/local/bin/php-config
make
sudo make install

Add the extension to your php.ini:

[Zephir Parser]
extension=zephir_parser.so

Usage

$program = <<<EOF
namespace Acme;

class Greeting
{
    public static function sayHello() -> void
    {
        echo "Hello, World!";
    }
}
EOF;

$retval = zephir_parse_file($program, '(eval code)');

var_dump($retval);

Grammar

The Zephir grammar is available in EBNF notation at docs/grammar.ebnf. It covers all production rules from parser/zephir.lemon and token definitions from parser/scanner.re, including yield, require_once, mixed type, nested property-access assignments, and all-caps (CONSTANT) name variants introduced for issue #39 support.

To visualize the grammar as a railroad diagram, copy the contents of docs/grammar.ebnf and paste them into the bottlecaps.de Railroad Diagram Generator (Edit Grammar tab → View Diagram tab).

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