Process control and release semantics

Entry point and commands

Use the same application entry file, working directory, PHP binary and service user for control commands. PID/status paths must refer to that application instance. These commands are read from Server 7e7cbda, not a promise for Server 4 or every platform.

php server.php start
php server.php start -d
php server.php status --json
php server.php connections --json
php server.php capabilities --json
php server.php reload -g
php server.php stop -g
php server.php restart -g
php server.php upgrade
php server.php help

Start in the foreground while developing. With a supervisor/container, normally keep foreground execution and let the supervisor own restarts; avoid nested daemon managers. Unix daemon mode uses -d and configured stdout/log files. Configure writable runtime paths per instance and never share PID files between applications.

Reload, restart and upgrade differ

• reload replaces workers from the already-running master image. PHP definitions loaded by that master may remain old. Do not assume reload deploys arbitrary changed PHP classes.
• restart stops and starts the application; it can create a listener gap and requires startup health verification.
• upgrade attempts master re-exec/listener handoff when advertised runtime capabilities permit it. Unsupported runtimes or changed listener topology have separate failure/fallback behavior; inspect capabilities and test the exact release.
• -g requests graceful stop/restart/reload. It is bounded by worker/protocol shutdown behavior and timeouts; it is not a guarantee of no disconnected WebSocket clients or no lost application data.

Acceptance and recovery

Verify the new revision, listening address, HTTP health, a real request, logs and long-lived connection behavior. Test slow requests, clients that never disconnect and a failing new worker. Keep a rollback artifact/config; rollback does not automatically reverse data migrations. In-memory worker state is not durable and is not shared between processes.

Windows and no-pcntl single-process fallback do not have the full Unix control/supervision model. Use CLI capabilities rather than assuming a command’s presence means the runtime can execute it. Source. Reviewed 2026-10-17; Ivan Zorin / Localzet Group.