Mailing lists

This section holds questions about how to get in touch with the PHP community. The best way is the mailing lists.

Are there any PHP mailing lists?

Of course! There are many mailing lists for several subjects. The most common community mailing lists can be found on our » mailing list page.

The most general mailing list is php-general. To subscribe, send a blank email message to » php-general-subscribe@lists.php.net. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to » php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net.

You can also subscribe and unsubscribe using the web interface on our » mailing list page, and unsubscribe instructions are included in the footer of every mailing list message.

Are there any other communities?

There are countless PHP-centric communities around the world, and we have links to some of these resources (and information on how to learn more) on our » Support page.

Can I start my own PHP mailing list?

Absolutely! In fact, we not only freely allow it, we encourage it! Helping others by sharing your knowledge and experience with PHP helps to foster the growth and development of the global PHP community and the language itself.

Help! I can't seem to subscribe to/unsubscribe from one of the mailing lists!

If you have problems subscribing to or unsubscribing from a mailing list, it may be because the mailing list software can't figure out the correct mailing address to use. If your email address is joeblow@example.com, and you are trying to subscribe to php-general, you can send your subscription request to php-general-subscribe-joeblow=example.com@lists.php.net, or your unsubscription request to php-general-unsubscribe-joeblow=example.com@lists.php.net. Use similar addresses for the other mailing lists.

The most common reason folks have a hard time unsubscribing from our mailing lists is due to the use of mail forwarders. For example, if your email address is danbrown@example.com, but you subscribed to the mailing list with the forwarder php-lists@example.com and forward that to danbrown@example.com, attempting to unsubscribe danbrown@example.com will not work, as that address is not even known to our systems. Instead, you will need to unsubscribe the address to which the mail is being sent - in this example, php-lists@example.com.

Is there an archive of the mailing lists anywhere?

Yes, you will find links to some of the archive sites on the » mailing list page. You will also find dozens of sites that archive and/or syndicate our mailing list content by using your favorite Internet search engine and searching for "php mailing list archives".

All mailing list articles are also archived as news messages. You can access the news server at » news://news.php.net/ with a news client. There is also an experimental web interface for the news server at » http://news.php.net/

What can I ask the mailing list?

Since PHP is growing more and more popular by the day, the traffic on the php-general mailing list can be very heavy, ranging from 75 to 200 or more posts per day. Because of this, it is in everyone's interest that you use the list as a last resort, when you have exhausted all other avenues.

Before you post to the list please have a look in this FAQ and the manual to see if you can find the help there. If there is nothing to be found there try out the mailing list archives (see above). If you're having problem with installing or configuring PHP, please read through all included documentation and README's. If you still can't find any information that helps you out, you're more than welcome to use the appropriate mailing list.

To ensure that you receive the best responses (and to reduce the likelihood of frustrating your fellow developers), please be sure to post your question to the appropriate list. For example, if you are having difficulties installing PHP, you should send your question to the php-install mailing list. A caveat: some lists have similar names and completely different uses; a question regarding PHP scripts on Windows should be directed to the Windows PHP users list, not to the Windows Internals list.

Before asking questions, you may want to read the paper on » How To Ask Questions The Smart Way as this is a good idea for everyone.

What information should I include when posting to the mailing list?

Posts like "I can't get PHP up and running! Help me! What is wrong?" are of absolutely no use to anyone. If you're having problems getting PHP up and running you must include the operating system being used, the version of PHP you're trying to use, how you got it (pre-compiled, Git, RPM, and so on), what you have done so far, and the exact error message or present result.

This goes for any other problem as well: you must include an explanation of what you have done, what you're trying to do, and any error messages encountered in the process. If you're having problems with your source code, you should include the part of the code that isn't working, indicating which line is the problem by an appropriately-placed code comment. Do not include more code than necessary though! It makes the post difficult to read, causing many to ignore your request. If you're unsure about how much information should be included, post what you believe is immediately relevant to your present issue, and be prepared to provide more information upon request.

Another important thing to remember is to summarize your problem on the subject line. A subject like "HELP MEEEE!!!" or "What is the problem here?" will be ignored by the majority of the readers.

And lastly, you're encouraged to read the paper on » How To Ask Questions The Smart Way as this will be a great help for everyone, especially yourself.