🧰 System Requirements

This guide lists the minimum and recommended requirements to run PhPstrap smoothly in development and production.

TL;DR: PHP 8.1+, MySQL/MariaDB, Apache or Nginx, and common PHP extensions (PDO, cURL, JSON, OpenSSL, Zip, GD). Ensure config/, cache/, uploads/, and logs/ are writable.

✅ Minimum Requirements

PHP: 8.1 or newer
Database: MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+
Web Server: Apache 2.4+ (with mod_rewrite) or Nginx 1.18+
Disk Permissions: Writable /config, /cache, /uploads, /logs
Extensions (required):
- PDO + PDO MySQL
- mbstring
- curl
- json
- openssl
- zip
- gd

💡 Recommended (Production)

PHP: 8.2 or 8.3
OPcache: Enabled for faster performance
Database: MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+
HTTPS: Valid TLS certificate (LetsEncrypt or equivalent)
Memory limit: 256M or higher
Max execution time: 60–120s (installer/updates unzip safely)
Upload limits: 10–50MB (upload_max_filesize, post_max_size)
Time zone: Set date.timezone (e.g., UTC)

🔌 PHP Extensions (Details)

Required

pdo, pdo_mysql — database access
mbstring — multibyte string handling
curl — GitHub updater, external requests
json — config, module settings, APIs
openssl — secure HTTPS requests
zip — installer/updater archive operations
gd — image manipulations (avatars, assets)

Optional / Nice to Have

intl — better date/locale formatting
imagick — higher quality image processing
ldap — enterprise auth (future modules)
redis — caching (future optimization)

🗄️ Database

Use UTF-8 (utf8mb4) charset and utf8mb4_unicode_ci collation.
Ensure the DB user can CREATE, ALTER, INDEX, and INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE.
Installer creates tables and inserts defaults; no manual SQL required.

🌐 Web Server

Apache

Enable mod_rewrite (pretty URLs / future modules).
Honor project .htaccess for basic hardening and rewrites.

Nginx

Route PHP requests to PHP-FPM.
Allow access to /assets, /uploads, deny direct access to /config, /logs, /installer.

🔐 File & Directory Permissions

Directories: 755
Files: 644
Writable by PHP: /config, /cache, /uploads, /logs
Production tip: Make /config writable only during installation/updates, then revert.

⚙️ PHP ini Settings (Suggested)

Directive	Recommended	Notes
`memory_limit`	256M	More for large imports/updates
`max_execution_time`	60–120	Installer/Updater unzip + copy
`upload_max_filesize`	10–50M	Adjust to your content needs
`post_max_size`	10–50M	≥ `upload_max_filesize`
`date.timezone`	UTC	Or your region (e.g., Europe/London)
`opcache.enable`	On	Significant performance boost
`expose_php`	Off	Minor security hardening
`display_errors`	Off (prod)	On in dev only
`log_errors`	On	Log to file, not screen

🔎 What the Installer Checks

The installer performs a quick environment scan similar to:

PHP version and required extensions (PDO, mbstring, curl, json, openssl, zip, gd)
Directory writability: /config, /cache, /uploads, /logs
Database connectivity (host, port, user, permissions)
Optional features: OPcache, ZipArchive, etc.

🧯 Troubleshooting

“Cannot connect to DB” — verify host, port (usually 3306), credentials, and GRANT permissions.
“ZipArchive missing” — install/enabled zip + ZipArchive in PHP.
“Permission denied” — ensure web server user can write to /config, /cache, /uploads, /logs.
“Updater can’t fetch GitHub” — enable curl and outbound HTTPS; optionally set GITHUB_TOKEN in env.
White page/500 — check logs/ and web server error logs; disable display_errors in production.

Need help verifying your environment? Run the installer’s Requirements step or open an issue on GitHub.