VM: `php bin/vm.php` boots in ~1.15 s (2,629 builtin objects, 84 modules, no opcache) and the compliance suite boots it 16,000 times — 2.6 of its 4 hours are startup (script/php-env.sh, lib/ExtensionRegistry.php, test/BaseTest.php)

[PurHur]

Category

Foundation: · VM startup / suite runtime · child of #36188

Problem

Measured on this box (master 4eed6a2785):

command	wall
php -d auto_prepend_file=vendor/autoload.php -r 'echo "x";'	0.051 s
php bin/vm.php hello.php	1.14–1.26 s
autoloading the 821 ext/standard builtin classes alone	150–165 ms; 53–61 ms with opcache.enable_cli=1 + opcache.file_cache

Causes: ExtensionRegistry::defaultModules() (lib/ExtensionRegistry.php:34) instantiates 84 modules whose getFunctions() new 2,629 builtin objects (828 in ext/standard/Module.php:99 alone), each forcing an autoload of a one-class file; script/php-env.sh:43-53 builds PHP_OPTS with no opcache flags and the image/host have opcache.enable_cli=Off. test/BaseTest.php spawns two processes per case (SKIPIF at :426 and the VM at :497) — 8,114 executed cases × ~1.15 s ≈ 2.6 h of the documented ~4 h serial VMTest. The harness additionally polls with usleep(150000) (:538) so a 20 ms case costs ≥ 150 ms, and drains output only after exit (:542) — a case printing > 64 KB deadlocks on the pipe.

PHP implementation target

1. script/php-env.sh + BaseTest::phpCommand() + phpc wrapper: add -d opcache.enable_cli=1 -d opcache.file_cache=build/opcache -d opcache.validate_timestamps=0 (key the dir on git SHA) — measured 2.7x on autoload alone.
2. Lazy builtin registration: generated per-module name → class-string tables; instantiate on first Context::declareFunction/resolveFunctionCallLc; keep the name map authoritative for function_exists, Reflection, get_defined_functions.
3. Harness: replace the 150 ms poll with stream_select draining; evaluate --SKIPIF-- in-process when it only touches PHPCompiler\* policy classes (945 cases), else spawn; add a bin/vm.php --batch mode (read case paths on stdin, pcntl_fork per case from the warm parent) and route BaseTest::runVmSubprocess through it.
4. phpunit.xml.dist (1,308 lines, 1,270 explicit <file> entries) → directory suites + PHPT_SHARD/PHPT_SHARDS env so shards can run concurrently in one container.

Repro

./script/docker-exec.sh -- bash -lc 'source script/php-env.sh && printf "<?php echo 1;\n" > build/one.php && time php bin/vm.php build/one.php && time php -d opcache.enable_cli=1 -d opcache.file_cache=/tmp/oc bin/vm.php build/one.php'

Done when

• php bin/vm.php hello ≤ 0.25 s in the pinned image (step 1+2); included-file count for echo 1 drops ≥ 80 %
• Serial VMTest ≤ 45 min; 24-shard run ≤ 4 min per shard; failing-name set identical to master's baseline (script/compliance-baseline.sh --diff)
• A case printing 1 MB no longer hangs; test/compliance/quarantine.txt unchanged

[PurHur]

claim: cursor-agent — starting this run (lane C tie-break #36206 % 3 == 2; opcache CLI bootstrap slice)

[PurHur]

claim: implementer-worker-lane-c — starting this run (lane C tie-break #36206 % 3 == 2; opcache CLI bootstrap slice)