Macros

ext-php-rs comes with a set of macros that are used to annotate types which are to be exported to PHP. This allows you to write Rust-like APIs that can be used from PHP without fiddling around with zvals.

• php_module - Defines the function used by PHP to retrieve your extension.
• php_startup - Defines the extension startup function used by PHP to initialize your extension.
• php_function - Used to export a Rust function to PHP.
• php_class - Used to export a Rust struct or enum as a PHP class.
• php_impl - Used to export a Rust impl block to PHP, including all methods and constants.
• php_const - Used to export a Rust constant to PHP as a global constant.

These macros do abuse the fact that (at the moment) proc macro expansion seems to happen orderly, on one single thread. It has been stated many times that this order is undefined behaviour (see here), so these macros could break at any time with a rustc update (let's just keep our fingers crossed).

The macros abuse this fact by storing a global state, which stores information about all the constants, functions, methods and classes you have registered throughout your crate. It is then read out of the state in the function tagged with the #[php_module] attribute. This is why this function must be the last function in your crate.

In the case the ordering does change (or we find out that it already was not in order), the most likely solution will be having to register your PHP exports manually inside the #[php_module] function.