Question

I wonder it is possible to use Boost.PHP to replace some PHP core functions logic and/or extend them. So What I want is simple: When a php script calls for require_once(dirname(__FILE__) . "/file.php"); I want to receive dirname(__FILE__) . "/file.php" with my function, create somehow that required file (in my case, go to some distributed storage), and return that file to PHP interpreter as if it was desired file.

Is it possible with Boost.PHP? How could I do such thing?

Answer 1

To change the beavior of a core php function you can use the runkit extension.

bool runkit_function_rename ( string $funcname , string $newname )

Note: By default, only userspace functions may be removed, renamed, or modified. In order to override internal functions, you must enable the runkit.internal_override setting in php.ini.

Please not that the extension is mainly used for unittesting and not used in production that often (as far as i know at least).

So you can to

runkit_function_rename("strlen", "org_strlen");
function strlen($string) {
    return org_strlen($string + 1); 
}

For things like require or isset that are language constructs and not functions see @Wrikken answer (+1)