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alternative extension: php-sm-curl

From: Michael via curl-and-php <curl-and-php_at_lists.haxx.se>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2026 14:55:16 +0500

Greetings.

I am currently in the process of re-implementing the cURL extension
for PHP using an alternative methodology: the PHP-SM ABI layer. While
this may sound unnecessarily complex, it represents a significantly
more elegant and streamlined architecture for extension design.

The project is designated as php-sm-curl. It is highly opinionated,
built upon a few core principles:

Targeted Execution: Execution is strictly limited to Non-Thread Safe
(NTS) environments and the CLI SAPI. Realistically, this represents
the primary valid use case for cURL within PHP, as modern
request/response web cycles leave little room for synchronous network
transfers.

Streamlined Dependencies: The dependency chain has been minimized
exclusively to nghttp2 and LibreSSL.

Enhanced Autonomy: The standard PHP binding relies on OpenSSL and
pre-compiled binary blobs. My approach incorporates the raw source
files directly, compiling them alongside the extension as lightweight
units.

Reduction of Excess: Support for external compression libraries has
been omitted, as compression adds unnecessary bloat. Similarly, c-ares
is intentionally omitted from the design; its threaded asynchronous
model introduces needless complexity without tangible benefit over the
native system resolver in an NTS architecture.

This project is already well under development, and I am roughly
halfway to a functional build. I will provide further technical
specifications as progress allows.

Should you have any requests, insights, or observations regarding this
proof of concept, your feedback is welcome.
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Received on 2026-07-28