Writing PHP opcode and have it executed. How to do?

Question

How can I write PHP opcode, save it in a file and make the Zend Engine execute it? Any method or hack is welcome, as long as it does the trick.

Answer 1

There is an extension called ulopcodes that allows you to emit your own opcodes via a function that it exposes to PHP code.

For example:

ulopcodes_emit(ZEND_ECHO, "Hello world!");

Will create that line in the current oparray which will be executed by the VM.

This extension is purely educational and not intended to be used in production code.

(Disclaimer: I am the creator of ulopcodes)

Answer 2

There's a couple of user-space methods (from plugins) that can deal with Opcodes.

• http://uk.php.net/apc_bin_load (and http://uk.php.net/apc_bin_dump)
• http://uk.php.net/bcompiler_read / http://uk.php.net/bcompiler_write_file

Neither produces plain text however because the opcodes are not designed to be a user-writable language (unlike Parrot).