--- title: Two-step creation for PHP modules | daily.dev description: A detailed PHP internals mailing list proposal for adding a module system to PHP in two incremental steps. Step one introduces 'definition files' via... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-mgtwjb87n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Two-step creation for PHP modules | daily.dev og:description: A detailed PHP internals mailing list proposal for adding a module system to PHP in two incremental steps. Step one introduces 'definition files' via... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-mgtwjb87n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MgtWJB87N.png og:image:alt: Two-step creation for PHP modules og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Two-step creation for PHP modules **[externals.io](https://daily.dev/sources/externals)** · 62 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A detailed PHP internals mailing list proposal for adding a module system to PHP in two incremental steps. Step one introduces 'definition files' via declare(def=1), which enforce zero global side-effects at compile time — no variable assignments, no function calls, no echo — making them safe for opcache and autoloaders. Step two builds on this with declare(module=1), adding import/export keywords, hash-prefixed internal symbol scoping, tree-shaking of unused exports, a new spl_register_module() function for path resolution, and Composer integration via new 'modules' fields in composer.json. The author has already submitted a proof-of-concept PR for definition files. A reply from Rowan Tommins critiques the proposal as too JavaScript-influenced given PHP's Java/C#-like identity. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Two-step creation for PHP modules](https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-sf3knezcu) · externals.io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two-step creation for PHP modules](https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-b8wycfcrd) · externals.io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two-step creation for PHP modules](https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-iqpcncupn) · externals.io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two-step creation for PHP modules](https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-9xriub7xd) · externals.io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two-step creation for PHP modules](https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-jdjaaa7ci) · externals.io · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-mgtwjb87n) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Two-step creation for PHP modules","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-mgtwjb87n","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/two-step-creation-for-php-modules-mgtwjb87n"},"datePublished":"2026-06-12T12:41:50.303Z","dateModified":"2026-06-12T12:42:15.214Z","description":"A detailed PHP internals mailing list proposal for adding a module system to PHP in two incremental steps. 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