webserver/README.md

⚡ Qbix Server

A pure PHP web server. No nginx, no Apache, no php-fpm.
One process serves static files, PHP scripts, WebSocket connections, and a live dashboard.

Why it's faster than nginx + php-fpm for real apps

	nginx + php-fpm	Qbix Server
🚀 PHP request speed	10–50ms bootstrap on every request	0ms — workers fork after classes are loaded
💾 Memory	30–60MB × N workers (duplicated)	30MB shared + ~5MB per worker (copy-on-write)
🔒 Access-controlled files	Public URLs or hacky rewrites	X-Accel-Redirect — PHP checks access, server streams the file
🧩 Cache invalidation	Whole-page only (purge everything)	X-Cache-Tree — invalidate one component, keep the rest cached
🌐 WebSocket	Needs a separate server	Built in
⚙️ Setup	Install nginx, configure proxy_pass, php-fpm pool, sockets...	php qbixserver.php --port=8080

Static file throughput is 55–73% of nginx (C will always beat PHP on raw I/O).
But on actual PHP workloads, the bootstrap savings make this 2–5x faster.

💡 You can always put nginx, a reverse proxy, or a CDN (Cloudflare, CloudFront) in front of this for faster HTTPS and edge caching. Qbix Server handles the PHP execution, access control, and intelligent caching behind it.

---

📑 Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Performance
• Why Not php-fpm?
• vs FrankenPHP and Swoole
• Features
• Server Headers
• For PHP Developers
• Configuration
• Three Ways to Run
• Building
• With Qbix Platform
• Architecture
• HTTP/2 Support
• Requirements
• License

---

🚀 Quick Start

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/Qbix/Server.git
cd Server

# Create a web directory
mkdir web
echo '<h1>Hello World</h1>' > web/index.html

# Run
php qbixserver.php --port=8080

Open http://localhost:8080. That's it.

# Or serve an existing directory
php qbixserver.php --root=/var/www/mysite --port=80

# Or use the PHAR (single file, 196KB)
php bin/qbixserver.phar --root=./public --port=8080

---

📊 Performance

Benchmarked against nginx on the same single-core container, PHP 8.3, Ubuntu 24.
13KB static file, best-of-3 runs, warm caches.

Scenario	nginx	Qbix Server	Ratio
Sequential (c=1)	10,154 req/s	6,376 req/s	63%
Concurrent (c=10)	12,300 req/s	6,876 req/s	56%
High concurrency (c=50)	12,919 req/s	7,253 req/s	56%
Keep-alive (c=10)	26,858 req/s	19,700 req/s	73%
Keep-alive (c=50)	30,158 req/s	20,369 req/s	67%

Zero failed requests across 50,000+ requests at concurrency 50. Server never crashed.

For context: 20K req/s means the server handles 1,000 simultaneous page loads per second (assuming ~20 static assets per page), all from a single PHP process.

---

🏎️ Why Not php-fpm?

The traditional stack — nginx + php-fpm — works like this:

Request → nginx → FastCGI socket → php-fpm worker
                                     ↓
                                   Load PHP
                                   Include autoloader
                                   Boot framework
                                   Connect to DB
                                   Run your code
                                   Send response
                                     ↓
                                   Worker resets or dies

Every PHP request pays the bootstrap cost. Even with OPcache, each php-fpm worker re-initializes your framework's class instances, config trees, and DB connections on every request. For a framework like Qbix (or Laravel, Symfony, etc.), this bootstrap takes 10–50ms — often longer than the actual work.

Qbix Server eliminates this entirely:

Startup:
  1. Load PHP
  2. Include autoloader
  3. Load ALL framework classes into memory
  4. Parse ALL config files
  5. Connect to database
  6. pcntl_fork() → workers inherit everything
                     ↓
Request:
  Worker already has classes, config, DB connections.
  Just run your code. 0ms bootstrap.

The key insight is fork after preload. Unix fork() uses copy-on-write, so forked workers share the parent's memory pages for all those preloaded classes. Each worker starts with ~30MB shared (read-only) and allocates only the per-request data. Compare this to php-fpm where each worker loads everything independently, using 30MB × N workers of duplicated memory.

Preloading classes

Use the --workers=N flag and configure which classes to preload:

{
    "Q": {
        "webserver": {
            "preload": [
                "Q_Dispatcher", "Q_Request", "Q_Response",
                "Q_Config", "Q_Cache", "Q_Session",
                "Db", "Db_Mysql", "Db_Row", "Db_Query",
                "Users", "Users_User", "Users_Session",
                "Streams", "Streams_Stream", "Streams_Message"
            ]
        }
    }
}

# Start with 4 workers (classes loaded once, shared across all)
php qbixserver.php --app=/path/to/myapp --port=8080 --workers=4

The parent process loads and parses every class in the preload list, then forks. Workers inherit the entire loaded state — OPcache entries, class definitions, parsed config trees, autoloader maps. The first PHP request in each worker runs at full speed, no cold start.

The numbers

	php-fpm	Qbix Server
Bootstrap per request	10–50ms	0ms
Memory per worker	30–60MB each	30MB shared + ~5MB per worker
IPC overhead	FastCGI socket + serialization	Direct function call or Unix fork
Static files	Separate nginx process	Same process, memory-cached, single fwrite
Config reload	Restart all workers	SIGHUP, zero downtime
WebSocket	Needs separate server	Built in

For a Qbix app with 20 loaded plugins, the bootstrap savings alone make the server 2–5x faster on PHP requests compared to nginx + php-fpm.

Why it's actually faster in practice

The benchmarks above measure static file throughput, where nginx's C implementation and sendfile() syscall give it an inherent edge. But for real PHP applications, the story flips:

• nginx + php-fpm: 0.1ms static file + 30ms PHP bootstrap + 5ms actual work = 35ms
• Qbix Server: 0.15ms static file + 0ms bootstrap + 5ms actual work = 5ms

The 0.05ms you lose on static files, you gain back 30ms on every PHP request. And you can always put nginx or a CDN in front for the static file edge.

---

⚖️ vs FrankenPHP and Swoole

If you're looking beyond php-fpm, you've probably seen FrankenPHP and Swoole. Here's how they compare:

	FrankenPHP	Swoole	Qbix Server
Language	Go + C (embeds PHP)	C extension for PHP	Pure PHP
Install	Download Go binary or Docker	pecl install swoole (compiles C)	php qbixserver.php — nothing to install
Architecture	Worker mode (persistent)	Coroutine-based (persistent)	Shared-nothing with fork-after-preload
State leaks	⚠️ Possible — workers persist between requests	⚠️ Possible — must manage globals carefully	✅ Impossible — each request gets a clean fork
PHP compatibility	Most code works, some edge cases	Many extensions incompatible, blocking I/O breaks coroutines	✅ 100% — standard PHP, nothing unusual
Memory safety	Go runtime + PHP = complex interaction	C extension = segfault risk	PHP only = memory-safe by default
Access control	No X-Accel-Redirect equivalent	Manual implementation	✅ Built-in X-Accel-Redirect
Component cache	No	No	✅ X-Cache-Tree — sub-page invalidation
Early hints / 103	✅ Yes	No	Via amphp
HTTP/2	✅ Built-in (Caddy)	✅ Built-in	✅ Via amphp
WebSocket	Via Mercure	✅ Built-in	✅ Built-in

The shared-nothing advantage

FrankenPHP and Swoole keep PHP workers alive across requests. This is fast, but it means global state, static variables, database connections, and in-memory caches persist between unrelated requests. This causes subtle bugs:

// This leaks between requests in FrankenPHP/Swoole:
class UserService {
    private static ?User $cached = null;
    
    public static function current(): User {
        if (!self::$cached) {
            self::$cached = User::fromSession();
        }
        return self::$cached; // Returns previous user's data!
    }
}

Every PHP framework, library, and snippet that uses static variables, singletons, or global state becomes a potential security hole. You have to audit everything.

Qbix Server avoids this entirely. Workers fork from a preloaded parent, so they inherit loaded classes and parsed config (read-only, shared via copy-on-write). But each request runs in its own process — when it's done, everything is gone. No state leaks. No audit needed. Your existing PHP code works exactly as it does on php-fpm.

The "just PHP" advantage

FrankenPHP requires Go tooling to build or a pre-built binary that bundles Caddy. Swoole requires compiling a C extension, which can conflict with other extensions and doesn't work on all hosting environments.

Qbix Server is a PHP file. If you can run php -v, you can run the server. It uses standard PHP extensions (sockets, pcntl) that come pre-installed on most systems. There's no compilation step, no foreign runtime, no binary compatibility issues.

# FrankenPHP
docker pull dunglas/frankenphp  # 150MB+ image, or build from Go source

# Swoole
pecl install swoole             # compiles C, may fail on some systems
# Then edit php.ini, restart php...

# Qbix Server
php qbixserver.php --port=8080  # done

When to choose what

Choose FrankenPHP if you want Caddy's ecosystem (automatic HTTPS, HTTP/3) and don't mind Go as a dependency. Good for Laravel projects that already use Octane.

Choose Swoole if you need coroutines for high-concurrency I/O (thousands of simultaneous HTTP client requests, database queries). Good for async-heavy microservices.

Choose Qbix Server if you want shared-nothing safety, zero-install deployment, access-controlled file serving, component-level cache invalidation, and full compatibility with existing PHP code. Good for apps that serve pages (not just APIs), need fine-grained caching, and want the simplest possible deployment.

---

✨ Features

Category	What you get
Static files	ETag, 304 Not Modified, Last-Modified, MIME type detection, in-memory response cache
Keep-alive	HTTP/1.0 and 1.1, TCP_NODELAY, configurable limits
HTTP/2	Via amphp — multiplexed streams, header compression, TLS (optional)
PHP execution	.php files in document root run in-process or via pre-fork worker pool
Compression	On-the-fly gzip/brotli + pre-compressed .gz/.br siblings
WebSocket	RFC 6455 upgrade on any path
Dashboard	Live stats at /Q/dashboard — request rates, memory, status codes
Health check	JSON at /Q/health — for load balancers and monitoring
Control panel	Password-protected at /Q/panel — manage apps and scripts
Rate limiting	Per-IP with configurable windows and burst limits
Security	Path traversal blocked, dotfiles blocked, 431 for oversized headers, 400 for malformed requests
Graceful shutdown	SIGTERM/SIGINT drain in-flight requests before closing
TLS	Optional HTTPS with auto-certbot or manual certs
Logging	Colored terminal output + file-based access logs
Access control	X-Accel-Redirect support — PHP enforces access, server serves the file
Component cache	X-Cache-Tree headers — invalidate parts of a page, not the whole thing

---

🔒 Server Headers — What Your PHP Can Send

Qbix Server understands special response headers from your PHP scripts. These are the same headers nginx understands (like X-Accel-Redirect) plus new ones for component-level caching. Your PHP sends them with header(), the server acts on them.

Quick reference

Header	What it does	Example
Cache-Control	Server caches the response, serves without running PHP	header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=300');
X-Accel-Redirect	Server streams a file after PHP checks access	header('X-Accel-Redirect: /uploads/private/doc.pdf');
X-Cache-Tree	Registers page components with content hashes	header('X-Cache-Tree: ' . json_encode([...]));
X-Cache-Deps	Maps components to data dependency keys	header('X-Cache-Deps: ' . json_encode([...]));
X-Cache-Invalidate	Marks dependency keys as stale	header('X-Cache-Invalidate: ' . json_encode([...]));
X-Cache-Stale	Marks specific components as needing re-render	header('X-Cache-Stale: feed,sidebar');

All of these are standard PHP header() calls. No SDK, no framework needed. The server strips them before sending the response to the client.

Access-controlled static files

With a typical server, your uploaded files sit at public URLs. Anyone with the link can access them — and share the link with others. The usual workaround is "unguessable" URLs, which are just security through obscurity.

X-Accel-Redirect lets your PHP check access, then tells the server to serve the file directly — fast, streamed, with no public URL exposed:

<?php
// web/download.php — access-controlled file serving
session_start();

$fileId = $_GET['id'] ?? '';
$userId = $_SESSION['user_id'] ?? null;

// Your access control logic
if (!$userId || !userCanAccess($userId, $fileId)) {
    http_response_code(403);
    echo 'Access denied';
    exit;
}

// Tell the server to serve the file directly.
// The client never sees the real path.
header("X-Accel-Redirect: /uploads/private/{$fileId}");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"document.pdf\"");

// The server takes over from here — streams the file
// with correct Content-Type, ETag, compression, etc.
// Your PHP process is already done.

No public URL for the file. No redirect the user can bookmark. The server streams the file after your PHP has verified access and exited.

Reverse proxy cache

Control how the server caches your PHP responses:

<?php
// web/feed.php — cached for 5 minutes

// The server caches this response and serves it without
// running PHP again for the next 300 seconds.
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=300');

echo renderFeed();

<?php
// web/profile.php — cached, but revalidate with ETag

// The server generates an ETag from the response body.
// Browsers send If-None-Match on next request.
// Server returns 304 (no body) if nothing changed.
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=0, must-revalidate');

echo renderProfile($userId);

<?php
// web/admin.php — never cache

header('Cache-Control: no-store');

echo renderAdminPanel();

Component-level cache invalidation

Most caching systems cache whole pages. When anything changes, you throw away the entire page and re-render everything. Qbix Server can cache individual components and only re-render what changed.

Step 1: Register components when rendering a page

<?php
// web/community.php — a page with three components

$feedHtml    = renderFeed($communityId);
$sidebarHtml = renderSidebar($communityId);
$membersHtml = renderMembers($communityId);

// Tell the server about the component tree and what data each depends on
header('X-Cache-Tree: ' . json_encode([
    'l' => [
        'feed'    => md5($feedHtml),
        'sidebar' => md5($sidebarHtml),
        'members' => md5($membersHtml),
    ]
]));

header('X-Cache-Deps: ' . json_encode([
    'feed'    => ["community/{$communityId}/feed"],
    'sidebar' => ["community/{$communityId}/about"],
    'members' => ["community/{$communityId}/participants"],
]));

header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=300');
echo $feedHtml . $sidebarHtml . $membersHtml;

Step 2: Invalidate when data changes

<?php
// web/post.php — user posts to the feed
saveNewPost($communityId, $content);

// Tell the server which dependency key changed
header('X-Cache-Invalidate: ' . json_encode([
    "community/{$communityId}/feed"
]));

// The server walks its dependency graph:
//   community/123/feed → page /community/123 component 'feed'
// Only 'feed' is stale. Sidebar, members = still cached.
// Next request re-renders only the feed component.

echo json_encode(['ok' => true]);

The server maintains a Merkle tree of component hashes. When a dependency key is invalidated, it walks the tree to find exactly which components on which pages are affected. Everything else is served from the in-memory cache.

Even more powerful with Qbix Platform

These headers work with plain PHP header() calls as shown above. But with the Qbix Platform, it becomes automatic:

// Tools call this during rendering — the framework handles the rest
Q_Response::setCacheComponent('Streams/feed', $hash, [$depKey]);
Q_Response::invalidateCacheDeps($publisherId . '/' . $streamName);

// X-Accel-Redirect for access-controlled files
Q_Response::redirect(['uri' => $internalPath, 'accel' => true]);

// Cache-Control with semantic options
Q_Response::cacheFor(300);

The Platform's Streams plugin automatically invalidates cache dependencies when stream data changes — posts, relations, participant joins — so cached pages update themselves without any manual invalidation calls.

---

📂 For PHP Developers — The Micro-Framework

Qbix Server isn't just a static file server with PHP bolted on. It's a micro-framework where you drop files into conventional directories and things just work — classes autoload, events fire handlers, views render templates. No configuration needed for the basics.

Project layout

myproject/
├── qbixserver.php              ← server entry point (or use the PHAR)
├── config/
│   └── server.json             ← server + app configuration
├── web/                        ← document root (publicly accessible)
│   ├── index.html              ← static files served directly
│   ├── style.css
│   ├── api.php                 ← PHP scripts executed on request
│   └── uploads/
├── classes/                    ← autoloaded classes (preloaded into workers)
│   ├── MyApp/
│   │   ├── User.php            ← MyApp\User or MyApp_User
│   │   ├── Feed.php
│   │   └── Auth.php
│   └── vendor/
│       └── autoload.php        ← Composer autoloader (optional)
├── handlers/                   ← event handlers (loaded on demand)
│   └── MyApp/
│       └── feed/
│           ├── post.php        ← handles "MyApp/feed/post" event
│           └── validate.php    ← handles "MyApp/feed/validate" event
└── views/                      ← PHP templates for Q::view()
    └── MyApp/
        └── feed/
            ├── page.php
            └── item.php

Only web/ is accessible via HTTP. Everything else is server-side only.

Classes — preloaded, both conventions

Drop a PHP file in classes/ and it's autoloaded. Both naming conventions work:

<?php
// classes/MyApp/User.php — namespace style (PSR-4)
namespace MyApp;

class User {
    public static function fromSession(): ?self { /* ... */ }
    public static function find(string $id): ?self { /* ... */ }
}

<?php
// classes/MyApp/Auth.php — underscore style (Qbix convention)
class MyApp_Auth {
    static function check(): bool { return !empty($_SESSION['user_id']); }
}

Both are available immediately in your web/*.php scripts:

<?php
// web/profile.php — both class styles work, no require needed
use MyApp\User;

$user = User::fromSession();
$isAdmin = MyApp_Auth::check();

The autoloader also bridges between conventions — if you define MyApp_Auth, it's also accessible as MyApp\Auth, and vice versa.

Preloading loads classes into memory before forking workers, so there's zero autoloader overhead per request:

{
    "Q": {
        "webserver": {
            "preload": {
                "autoload": "classes/vendor/autoload.php",
                "classes": [
                    "MyApp\\User",
                    "MyApp\\Feed",
                    "MyApp_Auth"
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

php qbixserver.php --root=./web --port=8080 --workers=4
#  Autoloader: autoload.php
#  Preloaded: 3 classes

Classes are eager — loaded once at startup, shared across all workers via copy-on-write. This is the "hot path" code that handles every request.

Handlers — loaded on demand

Handlers are the opposite of classes: they're loaded only when their event fires. Drop a file in handlers/ and it's available as an event:

<?php
// handlers/MyApp/feed/post.php
// Handles the "MyApp/feed/post" event
// Function name = path with slashes replaced by underscores

function MyApp_feed_post(&$params, &$result) {
    $title = $params['title'] ?? 'Untitled';
    $userId = $params['userId'] ?? null;

    // Validate, save to DB, whatever
    $id = saveFeedPost($userId, $title);

    $result = ['id' => $id, 'title' => $title, 'saved' => true];
    return $result;
}

Fire it from anywhere:

<?php
// web/api.php
$result = Q::event('MyApp/feed/post', [
    'title'  => $_POST['title'],
    'userId' => $_SESSION['user_id'],
]);

header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo json_encode($result);

The handler file is include'd the first time the event fires, then the function stays in memory. If the event never fires, the file is never loaded. This is ideal for things like webhooks, admin actions, and error handlers — code that runs rarely but needs to be available.

Check if a handler exists:

if (Q::canHandle('MyApp/feed/post')) {
    Q::event('MyApp/feed/post', $params);
}

Before/after hooks

You can attach hooks to any event via config — useful for validation, logging, access control, or cross-cutting concerns:

{
    "Q": {
        "handlersBeforeEvent": {
            "MyApp/feed/post": ["MyApp/feed/validate"]
        },
        "handlersAfterEvent": {
            "MyApp/feed/post": ["MyApp/feed/notify"]
        }
    }
}

<?php
// handlers/MyApp/feed/validate.php
function MyApp_feed_validate(&$params, &$result) {
    if (empty($params['title'])) {
        $result = ['error' => 'Title required'];
        return false; // stops the event chain — main handler won't fire
    }
}

<?php
// handlers/MyApp/feed/notify.php
function MyApp_feed_notify(&$params, &$result) {
    // Runs after the main handler
    if (!empty($result['saved'])) {
        sendNotification($params['userId'], "Post published: " . $result['title']);
    }
}

The chain is: before hooks → main handler → after hooks. Any before hook returning false stops the chain. This is the same pattern the full Qbix Platform uses — your handlers work identically when you upgrade.

Remote handlers

Handlers can also be URLs. If a handler name in the config starts with http:// or https://, the server POSTs the event parameters as JSON to that URL instead of loading a local PHP file:

{
    "Q": {
        "handlersAfterEvent": {
            "MyApp/user/register": ["https://hooks.example.com/new-user"]
        }
    }
}

When Q::event('MyApp/user/register', $params) fires, the local handler runs first, then the server POSTs $params as JSON to the remote URL. This is webhooks built into the event system — no separate webhook infrastructure needed.

Views — PHP templates

Render PHP templates from the views/ directory:

<?php
// views/MyApp/feed/item.php
// Variables are extracted into scope from the $params array
?>
<article>
    <h2><?= htmlspecialchars($title) ?></h2>
    <p><?= htmlspecialchars($body) ?></p>
    <time><?= $time ?></time>
</article>

<?php
// web/feed.php
$items = MyApp\Feed::latest(10);
$html = '';
foreach ($items as $item) {
    $html .= Q::view('MyApp/feed/item.php', $item);
}
echo Q::view('MyApp/feed/page.php', ['content' => $html]);

Views are just PHP files — full language access, no template DSL to learn.

The philosophy

	Loaded when	Lives in	Purpose
Classes	Startup (preloaded)	classes/	Models, services, utilities — your core code
Handlers	First event fire (on demand)	handlers/	Actions, hooks, webhooks — code that responds to events
Views	When rendered	views/	Templates — HTML with PHP
Scripts	When requested via HTTP	web/	Entry points — the "controller" layer
Config	Startup	config/	Settings, handler hooks, preload lists

Classes are eager. Handlers are lazy. Scripts are per-request. Views are on-demand. This gives you the right loading strategy for each kind of code without thinking about it — just put files in the right directory.

Workers: fork-per-request (truly shared-nothing)

Each worker handles exactly one request, then exits. The parent immediately forks a replacement. This means:

• Static variables — wiped (process dies)
• Global state — wiped (process dies)
• Memory leaks — impossible (OS reclaims everything)
• Secrets in memory — gone (no persistence between requests)

This is safer than php-fpm, which reuses workers across requests and relies on pm.max_requests to periodically recycle them. With Qbix Server, every request gets a clean process. The fork cost (~0.5ms) is negligible compared to the bootstrap savings (~10–50ms).

In-process mode (--workers=0)

Without --workers, PHP scripts run directly in the event loop. This is single-threaded — fine for development and lightweight APIs. Superglobals ($_GET, $_POST, etc.) are reset between requests, but static class variables persist (same as php-fpm). Use --workers=N in production for full isolation.

Growing into the full Qbix Platform

The conventions above — classes/, handlers/, views/, config/ — are the same ones the Qbix Platform uses. When your project outgrows the micro-framework and you need user accounts, real-time streams, access control, payments, or a plugin system, you switch to --app mode and everything you've written keeps working. Your classes stay in classes/, your handlers stay in handlers/, your views stay in views/. You just gain access to Streams, Users, Assets, and the rest of the plugin ecosystem — without rewriting anything.

---

⚙️ Configuration

Create config/server.json next to your web/ directory, or pass --config=path/to/config.json:

{
    "Q": {
        "webserver": {
            "keepAlive": {
                "max": 100,
                "timeout": 15
            },
            "maxConnections": 1024,
            "fileCache": {
                "maxSize": 67108864,
                "maxFile": 1048576,
                "checkInterval": 1
            },
            "rateLimit": {
                "enabled": true,
                "requests": 100,
                "window": 60
            }
        }
    }
}

Key	Default	What it does
keepAlive.max	100	Max requests per keep-alive connection
keepAlive.timeout	15	Seconds before closing idle connection
maxConnections	1024	Max simultaneous connections
fileCache.maxSize	64MB	Total memory for cached file responses
fileCache.maxFile	1MB	Largest file to cache in memory
fileCache.checkInterval	1	Seconds between file modification checks
rateLimit.enabled	false	Enable per-IP rate limiting
rateLimit.requests	100	Requests per window
rateLimit.window	60	Window in seconds

---

📦 Three Ways to Run

1. From source (needs PHP 8.1+)

php qbixserver.php --root=./web --port=8080

2. PHAR — single 196KB file (needs PHP)

php bin/qbixserver.phar --root=./web --port=8080

# Or make it executable
chmod +x bin/qbixserver.phar
./bin/qbixserver.phar --port=8080

3. Static binary — no PHP needed

# Download from GitHub Releases
chmod +x qbixserver-linux-x86_64
./qbixserver-linux-x86_64 --root=./web --port=8080

The binary bundles PHP 8.3 + extensions into a single ~15MB executable.
Copy it to any Linux or macOS machine and run. No dependencies.

---

🔨 Building

Build the PHAR

php -d phar.readonly=0 build-phar.php
# Output: bin/qbixserver.phar

Build the static binary

# With Docker (easiest):
./build-binary.sh --docker

# With static-php-cli installed locally:
./build-binary.sh

# Output: bin/qbixserver (~15MB)

The binary is built using static-php-cli, which compiles PHP + extensions into a statically linked binary.

GitHub Actions automatically builds binaries for Linux x86_64, Linux ARM64, macOS x86_64, and macOS Apple Silicon on every tagged release.

---

🔌 With Qbix Platform

Qbix Server is extracted from the Qbix Platform — a full-stack framework for building social apps with real-time streams, user management, and plugin architecture.

When you have a Qbix app, the server uses the full framework:

php qbixserver.php --app=/path/to/myapp --port=8080

In this mode:

• Requests route through Q_Dispatcher — the full Qbix event pipeline
• Plugins load automatically (Users, Streams, Assets, etc.)
• Clean URLs work (/community/123 → module routing)
• Static files still use the fast path (no framework overhead)
• The dashboard shows Qbix-specific stats

The standalone mode (without --app) runs as a plain web server — no framework, no plugins. PHP files execute directly, static files serve from memory. Use this for simple sites, APIs, or any project that doesn't need the full Qbix stack.

Qbix Platform scripts

The full Platform includes additional server scripts like static.php for CDN-style static file serving with versioned URLs. See the Platform repository for details.

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🏗️ Architecture

                    ┌──────────────────┐
 HTTP request ────→ │  Event Loop      │ stream_select (zero deps)
                    │  (single thread) │ or amphp/revolt (optional)
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
             ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
             │               │               │
        ┌────▼─────┐   ┌────▼─────┐   ┌────▼─────┐
        │  Static  │   │   PHP    │   │ WebSocket │
        │  Files   │   │ Dispatch │   │  Upgrade  │
        │          │   │          │   │           │
        │ In-memory│   │ In-proc  │   │ RFC 6455  │
        │ response │   │ or fork  │   │ frames    │
        │ cache    │   │ pool     │   │           │
        └──────────┘   └──────────┘   └──────────┘

Static files are served from an in-memory response cache. The full HTTP response (headers + body) is pre-built and sent in a single fwrite() call. The cache is mtime-validated with configurable check intervals. Combined with TCP_NODELAY, this delivers sub-millisecond response times.

PHP scripts run in-process (single-threaded, suitable for lightweight APIs) or in a pre-fork worker pool (--workers=N) for concurrent PHP execution. Workers are forked after class preloading, so they share the base memory footprint via copy-on-write pages.

The remaining gap versus nginx (55–73%) is inherent: nginx uses sendfile() (kernel-space file→socket copy), epoll (O(1) event notification), and compiled C. PHP's stream_select is select(2), file serving goes through userspace, and every operation has interpreter overhead. Getting to 55–73% of C performance from pure interpreted PHP is about as good as it gets.

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🌐 HTTP/2 Support

The built-in event loop uses stream_select — zero dependencies, works everywhere. But if you install amphp, the server upgrades to a full HTTP/2 server with no code changes:

composer require amphp/http-server amphp/socket
php qbixserver.php --port=8443

The server detects amphp automatically and switches to its event loop and HTTP driver. You get:

	HTTP/1.1 (built-in)	HTTP/2 (amphp)
Connections per page load	~6 parallel	1 multiplexed
Header overhead	Full headers per request	HPACK compressed
Event loop	stream_select (portable)	epoll/kqueue via Revolt
TLS	stream_socket_enable_crypto	amphp native TLS
Server push	No	Yes (push static assets before browser asks)

How it works

The server has a clean two-layer architecture. Q_WebServer::route() handles all request logic (static files, PHP dispatch, cache, access control) and returns a [status, headers, body] array. The transport layer is pluggable:

Built-in:   stream_select → accept → fread → route() → fwrite
amphp:      Revolt loop → amphp HTTP server → route() → amphp response

All the server's features — response cache, X-Accel-Redirect, component cache invalidation, keep-alive, compression — work identically on both transports. The Q_Evented facade abstracts the event loop, so timers, signals, and socket watchers work the same way whether you're on stream_select or Revolt.

When to use which

Built-in (default): Zero dependencies. Works on any PHP 8.1+ installation. Good for development, small-to-medium sites, and environments where you can't install Composer packages.

amphp: Better performance under high concurrency thanks to epoll/kqueue. HTTP/2 multiplexing reduces connection overhead for asset-heavy pages. Required if you need server push or HTTP/2-only clients.

Either way: You can always put Cloudflare, CloudFront, or nginx in front as a reverse proxy. The CDN terminates HTTP/2 (and HTTP/3) for you, forwarding HTTP/1.1 to the backend. In that configuration, the built-in transport is all you need — the CDN handles the protocol upgrade.

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📋 Requirements

Linux / macOS (recommended):

• PHP 8.1 or later
• Extensions: sockets, pcntl (for signals + workers), openssl (for HTTPS)

# Check
php -m | grep -E 'sockets|pcntl|openssl'

# Install on Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install php-cli php-sockets

For the static binary:

• Nothing. The PHP runtime is included.

Windows: The server runs in single-threaded mode (--workers=0 only). Static files, PHP scripts, WebSocket, caching, compression, access control — everything works. You lose fork-per-request isolation and signal-based graceful shutdown, because pcntl doesn't exist on Windows. Good for development; for production use Linux or macOS (or WSL).

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📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Part of the Qbix Platform.