On Tue, 22 Sept 2026 at 14:19, Tim Düsterhus <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> this thread concerns my PR carrying the same title as this email:
> https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/23658, where Gina requested that I
> ask the mailing list for opinions and/or objections against the feature.
>
> My goal is to enable PHP scripts to act both as “reusable module”
> (defining classes or functions for use in an application) as well as an
> executable script at the same time, similarly to Python’s `if __name__
> == "__main__"` pattern.
>
> My current PR automatically executes any `Closure` returned by the main
> PHP script, such that:
>
> <?php
>
> function my_json_decode(string $json): mixed {
> return json_decode($json, flags: JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
> }
>
> return static function () {
> var_dump(my_json_decode(file_get_contents('php://stdin')));
> };
>
> would just define `my_json_decode()` when included in an existing
> script, but print the decoding of the standard input when run as `echo
> '{"foo": "bar"}' |php my_json_decode.php` by executing the returned
> Closure, similar to `echo '{"foo": "bar"}' |python3 -m json.tool`.
>
> Another possible solution, that I didn't yet evaluate, might be defining
> a magic constant `__MAIN__` that is equivalent to `__FILE__` of the
> script that is executed first.
>
> Best regards
> Tim Düsterhus
Hi Tim,
A BIG yes from me.
I currently tend to use the following pattern in executable scripts,
or even index.php files in web applications:
```php
(static function (): void {
// This is the main entry point.
})();
```
For example:
https://github.com/carthage-software/mago/blob/main/composer/bin/mago#L18
It works, but I think returning the closure is cleaner and
communicates the intent more clearly:
Just to confirm my understanding: when the file is included from
another script, the closure would still be returned without being
executed,
so the following would continue to work as it does today:
```php
$callable = require 'script_file.php';
$callable();
```
Is that correct?
Best regards,
Seifeddine
