# [RFC] Sunset PECL

- Thread: https://externals.io/message/133008
- Original archive: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/133008
- Started by James Titcumb on 2026-11-05T20:34:25+00:00
- Messages: 5
- RFC: Sunset PECL (Under discussion) — https://externals.io/rfc/sunset_pecl.md
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## #133008 — James Titcumb — 2026-11-05T20:34:25+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/133008#133008

Folks,

I'd like to introduce an RFC to lay out a timeline to sunset PECL and open it for discussion.

RFC text is at https://wiki.php.net/rfc/sunset_pecl

Thanks
James

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## #133009 — Jakub Zelenka — 2026-11-05T21:04:19+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/133008#133009 · In reply to: #133008

> Folks,
>
> I'd like to introduce an RFC to lay out a timeline to sunset PECL and open
> it for discussion.
>
> RFC text is at https://wiki.php.net/rfc/sunset_pecl
>
>
Nice. It might be good to add there that pie is also distributed in a
binary form so users on older PHP versions can use it too - that was one of
the main blockers before AFAIK.

Cheers

Jakub

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## #133014 — James Titcumb — 2026-11-05T22:55:19+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/133008#133014 · In reply to: #133009

Jakub,

Thanks for the feedback.


> It might be good to add there that pie is also distributed in a binary form so users on older PHP versions can use it too - that was one of the main blockers before AFAIK.

That's a good point, and something that was initially (and technically still) experimental. I don't know what the usage stats are like, as we don't collect any metrics on PIE side, but it's definitely getting some usage. Perhaps we should start promoting that a little more, and remove the "experimental" flag, as it does indeed help that pre-PHP 8.1 issue.

I'll add a note to that effect, thank you!

Thanks 
James

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## #133017 — tim@bastelstu.be — 2026-11-06T08:39:08+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/133008#133017 · In reply to: #133008

Hi


> I'd like to introduce an RFC to lay out a timeline to sunset PECL and 
> open it for discussion.
> 
> RFC text is at https://wiki.php.net/rfc/sunset_pecl

Thank you. With Docker, arguably the main remaining user of manually 
installing third party extensions, removing PECL from the images for PHP 
8.6 and having a well-functioning PIE workflow this makes sense to me. 
The proposed timeline also nicely coincides with the EOL of PHP 8.5, so 
that there should not be any remaining Docker users that we would break. 
It might make sense to add 
https://github.com/docker-library/php/pull/1654 as a Reference to the 
RFC and to spell out explicitly why this timeline works out nicely.

I have no other comments to the RFC.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus

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## #133035 — fennic log — 2026-11-06T16:49:33+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/133008#133035 · In reply to: #133014

>
>  I don't know what the usage stats are like, as we don't collect any
> metrics on PIE side, but it's definitely getting some usage. Perhaps we
> should start promoting that a little more, and remove the "experimental"
> flag, as it does indeed help that pre-PHP 8.1 issue.
>
>
PIE doesnt, but packagist does https://packagist.org/extensions