How to enable ffi in the new deb pkgs

[aszenz]

I was installing frankenphp in CI (github actions ubuntu-m), via the shell cmd, first it failed since strangely it couldn't start since 2019 port was taken.
Then once i adjusted the admin port to 2020, it failed to run the app:

Class FFI not found
Class FFI\CData not found

This wasn't a problem with previous release i think

[henderkes]

You need to install the ffi extension.

[m@M-NB ~]$ php-zts --ri ffi
Extension 'ffi' not present.
[m@M-NB ~]$ sudo dnf install php-zts-ffi
Last metadata expiration check: 0:13:57 ago on Tue 25 Nov 2025 01:38:20 PM CET.
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================================
 Package                       Architecture             Version                      Repository                    Size
========================================================================================================================
Installing:
 php-zts-ffi                   x86_64                   8.5.0_85-1                   static-php                    82 k

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total download size: 82 k
Installed size: 225 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
php-zts-ffi-8.5.0_85-1.x86_64.rpm                                                       327 kB/s |  82 kB     00:00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                   325 kB/s |  82 kB     00:00
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                1/1
  Installing       : php-zts-ffi-8.5.0_85-1.x86_64                                                                  1/1
  Running scriptlet: php-zts-ffi-8.5.0_85-1.x86_64                                                                  1/1

Installed:
  php-zts-ffi-8.5.0_85-1.x86_64

Complete!
[m@M-NB ~]$ php-zts --ri ffi

FFI

FFI support => enabled

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
ffi.enable => preload => preload
ffi.preload => /usr/share/php-zts/preload/*.h:/usr/local/share/php-zts/preload/*.h => /usr/share/php-zts/preload/*.h:/usr/local/share/php-zts/preload/*.h

[aszenz]

Thanks, turns out none of the common extensions (pdo/intl/mysql) are installed by default in .deb installation method.

Any reason this installation was made default for ubuntu/redhat installations using the script?

I now reverted to using gnu-binary in the CI

[henderkes]

Yes, performance and availability of extensions. It's also a real "installation", like the name install.sh implies.

For production you should prefer the deb packages over the static binary. For CI the static binary is perfect.