PHP OPCache, Realpath Cache and Preloading

Everybody wants quick applications. A lot of that speed can be gained by the way you write your software, but a big chunk has to do with the way PHP is configured. As PHP matured, it got quicker, it used less memory and it accumulated a lot of settings which can be tuned for performance.

The biggest, and often most misunderstood, features for performance are OPCache (introduced in 5.5) and preloading (introduced in 7.4). This talk covers how both features work, how you can take advantage of them on your servers and during deployments, and tries to show all the ini settings relevant for performance.

Transcript

1. PHP OPCache,
   Realpath Cache
   and Preloading
   

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2. Jachim Coudenys
   

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3. PHP-WVL
   

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4. Combell
   

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5. OPCache
   

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6. PHP
   Scripting Language
   Fire and forget
   No "manual" compilation
   

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7. Compilation
   PHP Code
   Lexing + Parsing: Tokens
   Compiling: Opcodes
   Executing
   

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8. https://engineering.facile.it/blog/eng/realpath-cache-is-it-all-php-opcache-s-fault/
   

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9. Throwaway language
   Always performs same steps
   All information is discarded
   Request per request
   

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10. OPCodes (usually) don't change
    

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11. Add in some cache!
    PHP Code
    Lexing + Parsing: Tokens
    Compiling: Opcodes
    Cache: Opcodes
    Executing
    

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12. Next run
    Cache: Opcodes
    Executing
    

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13. And the next run
    Cache: Opcodes
    Executing
    

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14. Even the next run
    Cache: Opcodes
    Executing
    

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15. OPCache
    Since PHP 5.5
    Zend Optimizer "donated" by Zend
    

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16. Shared memory
    In computer hardware, shared memory
    refers to a (typically large) block of
    random access memory (RAM) that can
    be accessed by several different central
    processing units (CPUs) in a
    multiprocessor computer system.
    

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17. PHP-FPM
    Only "relevant" SAPI nowadays :)
    Master process
    Dynamic worker child processes
    Shared memory in the master
    

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18. Opcodes?
    In computing, an opcode (abbreviated
    from operation code) is the portion of a
    machine language instruction that
    specifies the operation to be performed.
    

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19. Vulcan Logic Dumper
    https://3v4l.org/A1B4H/vld#output
    

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20. This can get big quite quickly
    Libraries
    Frameworks
    

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21. OPCache Optimizer
    Gets better every release
    Optimizes:
    Branches
    Dead code
    ++$a vs $a++
    

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22. Interned strings
    Used in a lot of languages
    Since PHP 5.4
    "Compression" for source code
    In shared memory (FPM master process)
    

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23. opcache_compile_file()
    opcache_get_configuration()
    opcache_get_status()
    opcache_invalidate()
    opcache_is_script_cached()
    opcache_reset()
    php.net/manual/en/
    ref.opcache.php
    

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24. opcache.memory_consumption
    opcache.validate_timestamps
    opcache.revalidate_freq
    opcache.interned_strings_buffer
    opcache.max_accelerated_files (keys)
    opcache.max_wasted_percentage
    php.net/manual/en/
    opcache.configuration.php
    

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25. Keys
    Full path to file
    Relative paths to files
    

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26. Wasted memory
    Opcache doesn't to "defragmentation"
    File changes cause recompilation
    opcache.max_wasted_percentage
    

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27. Opcache restarts
    OOM Restarts
    Hash Restarts
    Manual Restarts
    

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28. NEVER have a full cache!
    

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29. Opcache Priming
    opcache_compile_file()
    FPM Pools
    

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30. opcache.php demo
    

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31. APCu
    User Shared memory
    apc_* compatible
    

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32. Opcache File Cache
    Read opcodes from disk
    Can help busy sites
    Supports CLI (used to be "fire and forget")
    Cache to "user directory"
    http://talks.php.net/froscon15#/php7pcache1
    

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33. opcache.file_cache=/var/tmp/php/opcache
    opcache.file_cache_only=1 # Useful for CLI
    opcache.file_cache_consistency_checks=1 # Adler checksum
    

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34. Scenario's
    Memory Full?
    Interned Strings Full?
    Key store full?
    

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35. Deployment Strategies
    It Depends ¯\_( )_/¯
    

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36. Realpath Cache
    

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37. Realpath Cache
    Used to reduce IO
    Caches all possible paths to destination path
    explode('/')
    No shared memory (per worker process)!
    Mem*Workers
    4M (Prior to PHP 7.0.16 and 7.1.2, the default was
    "16K")
    

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38. realpath_cache_get()
    realpath_cache_size ()
    realpath()
    php.net/manual/en/
    ref.filesystem.php
    

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39. realpath.php demo
    

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40. realpath_cache_size
    realpath_cache_ttl
    php.net/manual/en/
    ini.core.php
    

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41. Preloading
    

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42. PHP has been using opcode caches for
    ages (APC, Turck MMCache, Zend
    OpCache). They achieve significant
    performance boost by ALMOST
    completely eliminating the overhead of
    PHP code recompilation. With an opcode
    cache, files are compiled once (on the first
    request that uses them), and are then
    stored in shared memory. All the
    following HTTP requests use the
    representation cached in shared memory.
    

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43. Preloading
    PHP 7.4
    Part of opcache
    Starts in master process before anything else
    Loads code in memory "permanently"
    No need to copy from shared memory to process
    memory
    

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44. Preloading
    Opcache only works per file
    Preloading helps with class libraries
    Code will perform as internal entities (e.g. strlen,
    etc...)
    Simple file with autoloading magic
    

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45. opcache.preload
    https://wiki.php.net/rfc/preload#proposal
    

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46. PHP <= 7.3
    PHP process starts up
    

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47. PHP <= 7.3
    First request:
    app does new A()
    autoloader include 'A.php';
    PHP "compiles" A.php into opcodes and stores it in
    opcache
    opcodes are executed
    

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48. PHP <= 7.3
    Next requests:
    app does new A()
    autoloader include 'A.php';
    A.php is already in opcache, no need to read the
    file and re-interpret the PHP
    opcodes are executed
    

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49. PHP >= 7.4 + preloading
    PHP process starts up
    

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50. PHP >= 7.4 + preloading
    preloading starts:
    preloader new A()
    preloader + PHP "compiles" A.php into opcodes
    and stores it in memory
    

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51. PHP >= 7.4 + preloading
    First request:
    app does new A()
    opcodes are executed
    

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52. PHP >= 7.4 + preloading
    Next requests:
    app does new A()
    opcodes are executed
    

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53. Normal vs Preloading
    first request we save calls to the autoloader +
    compilation to opcode + storing to opcache
    next requests we save calls to the autoloader +
    fetching from opcache
    

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54. https://externals.io/message/103333
    https://wiki.php.net/rfc/preload
    https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/3538
    

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55. PHPArch Opcache article
    https://www.phparch.com/article/diving-in-the-
    opcache/
    

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56. Elastic Stack @ Combell
    Gather realpath/opcache/etc... data from all
    accounts
    Act upon that data (which is changing constantly)
    Autotuning
    

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57. Thank you!
    https://joind.in/event/php-wvl-may-meetup-at-studio-
    emma-2019/php-opcache-and-preloading
    

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