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How can I bind OLSRT to PHP?


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Javad

Hey Dev Community!

After my last blog about binding OLSRT to Node.js, I’m back again—this time with a new challenge: How can I bind OLSRT to PHP?

If you’ve ever wanted to bring async/event‑driven power into PHP, this post is for you. Let’s dive in together!

🔧 Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure you have:

  • Knowledge: C programming and basic PHP internals (Zend API).
  • Tools:
    • On Windows: PHP SDK, Visual Studio (MSVC), Git.
    • On Linux/macOS: php-dev, phpize, GCC/Clang, Autotools, Git.
  • OLSRT repo cloned: 
  git clone https://github.com/OverLab-Group/OLSRT

📂 Project Setup

Inside your project root, create:

  • php_olsrt.h — header file
  • php_olsrt.c — main binding code
  • config.m4 (Linux/macOS) or config.w32 (Windows) — build config
  • test.php — to test the extension

Also add include directories to compiler: OLSRT/src, OLSRT/includes, and Root Project.

📝 php_olsrt.h 

#ifndef PHP_OLSRT_H
#define PHP_OLSRT_H

extern zend_module_entry olsrt_module_entry;
#define phpext_olsrt_ptr &olsrt_module_entry

#define PHP_OLSRT_EXTNAME "olsrt"
#define PHP_OLSRT_VERSION "0.1.0"

PHP_FUNCTION(olsrt_hello);
PHP_FUNCTION(olsrt_version);

#endif /* PHP_OLSRT_H */

📝 php_olsrt.c 

#include "php.h"
#include "php_ini.h"
#include "ext/standard/info.h"
#include "php_olsrt.h"
// #include "olsrt.h" // Uncomment when OLSRT headers are ready

PHP_FUNCTION(olsrt_hello)
{
    php_printf("[OLSRT] Hello from PHP binding!\\n");
    RETURN_TRUE;
}

PHP_FUNCTION(olsrt_version)
{
    RETURN_STRING("OLSRT PHP binding 0.1.0 (stub)");
}

static const zend_function_entry olsrt_functions[] = {
    PHP_FE(olsrt_hello, NULL)
    PHP_FE(olsrt_version, NULL)
    PHP_FE_END
};

PHP_MINIT_FUNCTION(olsrt) { return SUCCESS; }
PHP_MSHUTDOWN_FUNCTION(olsrt) { return SUCCESS; }
PHP_RINIT_FUNCTION(olsrt) { return SUCCESS; }
PHP_RSHUTDOWN_FUNCTION(olsrt) { return SUCCESS; }

PHP_MINFO_FUNCTION(olsrt)
{
    php_info_print_table_start();
    php_info_print_table_header(2, "OLSRT support", "enabled");
    php_info_print_table_row(2, "Version", PHP_OLSRT_VERSION);
    php_info_print_table_end();
}

zend_module_entry olsrt_module_entry = {
    STANDARD_MODULE_HEADER,
    PHP_OLSRT_EXTNAME,
    olsrt_functions,
    PHP_MINIT(olsrt),
    PHP_MSHUTDOWN(olsrt),
    PHP_RINIT(olsrt),
    PHP_RSHUTDOWN(olsrt),
    PHP_MINFO(olsrt),
    PHP_OLSRT_VERSION,
    STANDARD_MODULE_PROPERTIES
};

#ifdef COMPILE_DL_OLSRT
ZEND_GET_MODULE(olsrt)
#endif

⚙ config.m4 (Linux/macOS) 

PHP_ARG_ENABLE(olsrt, whether to enable OLSRT support,
[  --enable-olsrt   Enable OLSRT support])

if test "$PHP_OLSRT" != "no"; then
  PHP_NEW_EXTENSION(olsrt, php_olsrt.c, $ext_shared)
  PHP_ADD_INCLUDE(/absolute/path/to/OLSRT/includes)
fi

⚙ config.w32 (Windows) 

ARG_ENABLE("olsrt", "Enable OLSRT support", "no");

if (PHP_OLSRT != "no") {
    var OLSRT_INC = "C:\\path\\to\\OLSRT\\includes";
    ADD_SOURCES(configure_module_dirname, "php_olsrt.c", "olsrt");
    ADD_INCLUDE(OLSRT_INC);
}

▶ Build & Install

Linux/macOS 

phpize
./configure --enable-olsrt
make
sudo make install

Add to php.ini:

extension=olsrt.so

Windows

  • Run buildconf.bat
  • configure.js --enable-olsrt
  • Build with MSVC → output php_olsrt.dll
  • Copy to ext\ and add to php.ini: 
  extension=php_olsrt.dll

🧪 test.php 

<?php
if (!extension_loaded('olsrt')) {
    @dl('olsrt.' . (PHP_SHLIB_SUFFIX ?? 'so'));
}

olsrt_hello();
echo "Version: ", olsrt_version(), PHP_EOL;

Run:

php test.php

🎯 Conclusion

And that’s it! You’ve just built a PHP extension that binds to OLSRT. Right now it’s a skeleton with olsrt_hello and olsrt_version, but the structure is ready for you to plug in Futures, Actors, Event Loop, Streams, and WebSockets from OLSRT.

This is the foundation—next steps could be:

  • Wrapping OLSRT Futures into PHP classes
  • Adding async/await‑like APIs
  • Building a real demo (e.g. chat server)

👋 Final words

Thanks for following along! I hope this guide helps you bring the async/event‑driven magic of OLSRT into PHP.

If you try this out, let me know what you build—I’d love to see it.

Until next time, have a great OLSRT day! 🚀


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Javad