Boost PHP Performance with Yaconf: Install, Configure, and Integrate

What is Yaconf?

Yaconf is a high‑performance configuration‑management extension for PHP 7. It stores configuration files in a dedicated directory (set via yaconf.directory ) and loads them once at PHP startup, keeping the parsed data in memory for the lifetime of the request. Changes are reloaded automatically according to yaconf.check_delay . Supported types include strings, arrays, sections, section inheritance, PHP constants and environment variables.

Why use Yaconf?

Typical PHP projects keep dozens of .php files under a config directory, each returning an array. Parsing all those files on every request adds noticeable overhead. Yaconf eliminates this cost by loading configurations only once.

Installation

Windows

1. Download the extension from the PECL repository, e.g. http://pecl.php.net/package/yaconf/1.0.7/windows. 2. Copy php_yaconf.dll to the PHP ext directory. 3. Add extension=php_yaconf.dll to php.ini. 4. Configure Yaconf in php.ini:

[yaconf]
yaconf.directory="D:\phpStudy\Yaconf"
yaconf.check_delay=60

5. Restart the web server or PHP‑FPM and verify the extension with phpinfo().

Linux

git clone https://github.com/laruence/yaconf.git
cd yaconf/
phpize
./configure --with-php-config=/usr/local/php-7.2/bin/php-config
sudo vim /usr/local/php-7.2/etc/php.ini   # add: extension=yaconf.so
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm.service

Standalone Usage

Create a configuration file (e.g. redis.ini) in the directory defined by yaconf.directory:

[base]
parent="yaconf"
children="NULL"

[children:base]
children="set"

After restarting the server, retrieve the configuration in PHP:

<?php
$redis = \Yaconf::get('redis');
print_r($redis);

Framework Integration (ThinkPHP 6)

Add Yaconf settings to the global php.ini:

[yaconf]
yaconf.directory="/home/www/web/cl_new_pay_dev"
yaconf.check_delay=60

Create a project‑specific thinkphp.ini in the project root:

name="yaconf"
year=2015
features[]="fast"
features.1="light"
features.plus="zero-copy"
features.constant=PHP_VERSION
features.env=${HOME}

Bind the configuration file in a bootstrap file (e.g. common.php) so that ThinkPHP loads it:

think\facade\Config::setYaconf('thinkphp');

Access values via the ThinkPHP helper functions:

var_dump(Config::yaconf('name'));
var_dump(Config::yaconf('year'));
var_dump(Config::yaconf('features')['plus']);
var_dump(Config::yaconf('features.plus'));
var_dump(Config::yaconf('features.constant'));
var_dump(Config::yaconf('features.env'));

Or retrieve them directly with the static \Yaconf class:

print_r(\Yaconf::get('cpay'));
print_r(\Yaconf::get('cpay.common'));
print_r(\Yaconf::get('cpay.database'));
print_r(\Yaconf::get('cpay.redis'));
print_r(\Yaconf::get('cpay.redis.host'));