Adding support for php/pie to install php extensions

[nicosalvadore]

👉 Describe the problem

Today, the docker images are using mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer to install php extensions. Which pulls the extensions from PECL.
According to PECL website, PECL is being deprecated. A new tool called PIE is the official new way to install extensions.

👥 Problem evidence & reach

Everyone using PECL is or will be impacted sooner or later.

https://pecl.php.net/

🏆 How to solve this problem

According to the PIE docs, PIE is distributed as a PHAR, just like Composer. I would then suggest to include this package in the base docker images to allow and document the new way to install php extensions.
The current package mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer should still be in the docker images, to ensure backwards compatibility.

🥰 Describe the "impact" on users?

User would be presented with two ways to install php extensions : one legacy, and one officially supported.

Thanks in advance :)

[coolio85]

In the meantime, if you wish to use pie, you can add this to your docker image

COPY --from=ghcr.io/php/pie:bin /pie /usr/bin/pie - https://github.com/php/pie/blob/main/docs/usage.md

Then use pie install vendor/extension-name

Note: You may need to install additional tools such as apk add build-base or apt-get install build-essential to use the pie extension installer

[jaydrogers]

I really was hoping that I could come up with a solution to have this in v4.0, because I am excited to see a modern replacement for PECL.

The problem with PIE (as of today)

It seems like PIE might add some bloat to the images?

That's what I really liked about mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer, where it would install the dependencies you need, but then remove them once they are done.

More discussion

@nicosalvadore pointed me to this conversation, which I also chimed in on:

• Switch to PIE mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer#1125 (comment)

Right now I am hesitant to implement PIE because it doesn't seem to have a "container first" design like install-php-extensions does, and I really don't want to add a ton of size to the images.

I need to learn more and then I will definitely pursue a solution on this 💯

[jaydrogers]

Update

It looks like there might be a rewritten version of docker-php-extension-installer coming out that will use PIE?

Perhaps we wait and see on this since we've had such great experiences with this library already?

Related comment:

• Switch to PIE mlocati/docker-php-extension-installer#1125 (comment)