Whether the opcache is enabled or not, the vast majority of production PHP code is I/O bound - workers wait for the network or filesystem or database.
Roadrunner, FrankenPHP and Swoole try to make it evented like Node, but require you to rewrite all your code to use their libraries. For everything from mysql to curl.
This lets you run your PHP unmodified, in 2 different ways:
1) with long persistent workers, clearing all statics and globals between requests
2) if that doesn’t work, eg because your functions have static variables inside etc. then you can use the fork mode, which can still handle 100x as many users as php-fpm due to the amount of RAM each of the workers takes up aa that’s the point!
I honestly consider it lazy pattern-matching commenting slop if people don’t look at the actual software being described, don’t run it, don’t even open the sections of the webpage that describe how it works.
I understand why… people are inundated with more content than ever. Even if it is a huge breakthrough, most won’t care and will just keep posting in a TL;DR way.
I hoped that many on HN would actually take this for a spin. It’s free and MIT-licensed. And if you serve any websites in PHP (as 70% of all websites are), you owe it to yourself to save money and serve more users on one machine. I mean, seriously, this lets you build a PHP app that serves 40,000 users on a $5/month machine. You’d raise your Series A before you need another machine LOL
Most PHP requires additional webservers, such as nginx, and process managers like php-fpm, to even serve websites.
This is an all-in one server. It even handles websockets with socket.io 5 compatibility! Yes, without it, people would additionally resort to Node for socket support and maybe Redis for message passing. One of the features is that this server finally handles it all. PHP for everything!
The grandfather comment is pants-on-fire wrong. “No need to click” while they opine on something you’ve never seen.
As far as the landing page — there are truly many features that this webserver enables. That’s why the website lists 9 categories and links to other pages. It also has expandable sections like “how can it be this fast?”
I do use LLMs in my toolchain, to generate text and code, and compilers to generate code, but I also cover it heavily with automated tests and also battle-test it in my own environments on actual workloads. I mean sheesh, I am literally sharing it so that you can download and run it yourself, and if you run into something obscure on your environment, report any issues and it’ll be fixed.
And this one has a working webserver you can run in one command, a graphical user interface and real-time dashboard, tests to prove the claims, and example apps to make it easy to start. Not to mention that you can run your existing PHP apps unmodified with it just like you can with php-fpm.
I think what’s happening is: I spend months iterating and building software, that makes some major breakthroughs over existing software. I am able to do this by using LLMs in my toolchain, as well as automated testing suites, and compilers. I don’t write assembly language by hand.
What happens is that I have the documentation and front facing websites also generated by LLMs. And many people commenting here didn’t even bother to click through and download the actual software or try it. If you did, you would have seen the tests, and example apps. You would have seen the graphicsl UX and dashboard the server itself enables. The fact that no one even mentioned it suggests to me that the people commenting are ones cutting corners. So me using more automation in addition to compiles and test suites isn’t the issue, if you are unwilling so much as to run it before opining publicly about it. Based solely on a README file.
In particular, this server allows people (like the entrepreneurs on HN) to handle 100x as many simultaneous users than current php-fpm, or be as safe as php-fpm while being as fast as Swoole, Roadrunner, FrankenPHP. Try it.
The goal is to optimize everything other than the database. The vast majority of PHP apps are I/O bound and this webserver lets you handle 100x as many users as php-fpm. That’s the point. Your code can remain the same and keep using whatever database.
Indeed. And funny enough, by writing it in PHP, I was able to make it spawn 100x as many workers on the same machine, and thus serve more 100x more users from one machine. On a 4GB machine it can handle 40,000 simultaneous users, and not just for HTTP but websockets too. It is extremely efficient — built for entrepreneurs like the ones on HN. Try it
Yes, I actually iterated a lot on that README and personally directed the LLM to produce every section in there, as an artifact. Normally it would produce a much shorter README, and I should probably have split it up. That is exactly what I did on the actual website.
The README is no longer than nginx documentation, though, or many manfiles of programs. The README explains all the features in one file, with results of actual benchmarks. I asked it to put emojis in there as well.
I use LLMs in my toolchain, same as I also use compilers. In fact, I use the LLMs to generate end-to-end test suites, and the test running is automated as well.
I use LLMs in my toolchain, same as I also use compilers. In fact, I use the LLMs to generate end-to-end test suites, and the test running is automated as well.
Roadrunner, FrankenPHP and Swoole try to make it evented like Node, but require you to rewrite all your code to use their libraries. For everything from mysql to curl.
This lets you run your PHP unmodified, in 2 different ways:
1) with long persistent workers, clearing all statics and globals between requests
2) if that doesn’t work, eg because your functions have static variables inside etc. then you can use the fork mode, which can still handle 100x as many users as php-fpm due to the amount of RAM each of the workers takes up aa that’s the point!
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