A Guide to Linux Programming with PHP

Adapted by: Berry van der Linden • Edited by: Christian Cawley
Updated Jan 29, 2011 • Related Guides: HTML | PHP

This is the first article in a series for programming with PHP in Linux. This article will provide you with a brief introduction to the open-source PHP language and show you how to set up your Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP programming environment and code your first PHP application. Excited?

Introduction

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What is PHP? PHP is a recursive acronym stands for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. In your hours spent trawling the Internet you have probably come across PHP numerous times. You may not know how powerful the language is, and what it can do and you may not have even seen any PHP code before now! PHP has the awesome position of being the only open-source server-side scripting language that's both powerful and satisfying to learn!

Why Use PHP?

HTML is completely static. By using and HTML, we can create dynamic sites that will change depending on certain conditions. Not to mention that PHP is powerful, scalable and best of all, free. Data-driven applications can be mashed up quickly with the built-in database support in PHP, add an excellent manual, a friendly community and a price of zero - and you've got my favourite programming language!

Setting Up Your Environment

As with all programming languages, before you begin to staring programming PHP, you need to have a development environment set up on your box. In the following PHP tutorial we will be using PHP with the Apache Web server running on Linux. However, you can just as easily use PHP with Apache on any operating system. Detailed instructions on how to set up a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) development environment on are here, in another of my articles.

Learning Some Syntax

PHP code sits inside a page with the HTML, as with HTML it is made up of plain-text. Therefore, a page that shows "We are about to learn some awesome PHP skillz (yes, skills with a z)" would be inside an HTML page named filename.php like this:

<html>

<head>

<title>Bright Hub Article</title>

</head>

<body> <p>That is some simple PHP code below:</p>

<?php

echo 'Hi, my name is Josef';

</body>

</html>

See? The HTML is rendered as HTML and the code between the <?php and ?> gets executed as PHP.

You may notice some instances where the "php" after the question mark is missing. This is a lazy practice known as "PHP short tags" - full tags should always be used! Also, PHP statements end in a semi-colon, however, a semi-colon is not required to terminate the last line of a PHP block, as the PHP closing tag ?> contains a semi-colon.

Next Time

I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to PHP and that you come back for part two! In the next article we will take a look at more statements, how to comment and execute your beautiful PHP code!

md.ejaz alam Oct 15, 2010 3:36 AM

guide for php programming with linux

how can i solve the php programming in
the using of linux operating system,
plz send guidline f

Josef Nankivell Sep 13, 2009 3:44 PM

Re: Linux Programming

As you are probably aware, Linux itself is an Operating System, like Windows and Mac OS.

The reason why an app compiled under windows can't run in Linux (or vice-versa) is because of APIs used by each OS. The API is a set of methods used by programmers to make programming possible - It may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes and protocols used to communicate between the requesting software and the OS. For example, to open a window in windows you use a function implemented in windows. There are LOTS of these methods and most important of all Microsoft won't release all of their source code. Recreating the Windows API in Linux is very tricky indeed!

However, there are applications/languages that are OS - independent. JAVA, for example, but these programs run slower due to their use of a "virtual machine". A virtual machine (VM) is coded for each operating system and the application code is translated and executed by the VM. Because of the performance drop large applications are often coded in OS specific code and not on virtual machines.

If you are referring to PHP in particular, PHP is executed on a server, Apache for example. Therefore, PHP can be run and developed on almost any operating system.

I hope this goes some way to answering your question.

Daryl Sep 12, 2009 3:41 PM

Linux Programming

I a linux noob and I want to ask a stupid question. I know Linux won't run on Windows or on a Mac but why not? What is it about the programming language that will not allow Linux apps to run on a Mac, or on Windows etc. Why couldn't the code be worked out so all applications are interchangeable? I know its a silly question but I just wanted to know.