Online documentation

You can read the documentation online in various languages. The Documentation HOWTO, and archive manuals are also available from our documentation page.

Other formats

The manual is also available via *nix style man pages. To install and use:

Install: pear install doc.php.net/pman
Upgrade: pear upgrade doc.php.net/pman
Example usage: pman strlen

HTML Help viewers

Microsoft Windows has a reader built in.
On Linux, *BSD and Solaris:
- xCHM
- GnoCHM
- KchmViewer
iChm caters to Mac OS X users.

File sizes and dates

If you are using a capable browser, the file size and date will show up when you move the mouse above a link. If you cannot view this information, or would like to see all the information, you can click here to see all the file sizes and dates.

Download documentation

The PHP manual is available in a selection of languages and formats. Pick a language and format from the table below to start downloading.

Notes to read before you download

The English version should be considered the most accurate, since translations are based on that version. Most of the translations are not complete, and contain English parts.
The packaged HTML version of the manual (tar.gz) doesn't contain any directories, so all of the files will be dumped into your current working directory when you expand the archive unless the tool you use does otherwise.
If you are using Windows XP SP2 or later and you are going to download the documentation in CHM format, you need to "unblock" the file after downloading it by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer and selecting the "Properties" menu item, then clicking on the "Unblock" button (on Windows Vista this is within the "Security" options). Failure to unblock the documentation file may result in error messages including "Navigation to the webpage was canceled" due to Windows security restrictions.

	Single HTML file	Many HTML files	HTML Help file	HTML Help file (with user notes)
English	html.gz Size: 5187Kb Date: 17 May 2013	tar.gz Size: 7773Kb Date: 17 May 2013	chm Size: 13085Kb Date: 17 May 2013	chm Size: 29627Kb Date: 17 May 2013
Brazilian Portuguese	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
Chinese (Simplified)	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
French	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
German	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
Italian	html.gz	tar.gz
Japanese	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
Romanian	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
Russian	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
Spanish	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm
Turkish	html.gz	tar.gz	chm	chm