First PHP 8.3 Release Candidate is now available for testing

The first release candidate for the upcoming PHP version, PHP 8.3 is now available for testing.

The first generally-available PHP version is scheduled for November 23 of this year, and the first Release Candidate for PHP 8.3 is a significant pre-release milestone as it indicates all of the changes for PHP 8.3 are now implemented, with only polishing and bug fixes left to do.

There will be five more release candidates, each released after two weeks, before the PHP 8.3.0 general availability on November 23rd.

PHP 8.3.0RC1 is tagged in the php-src repository, and there is now a PHP-8.3 branch that will be used to cut further PHP 8.3 releases. The master branch of the repository is now being primed and developed for the PHP 8.4 version that will be released in 2024.

Windows builds for PHP 8.3 Release Candidates are available on windows.php.net/qa, while Docker images are already available on Docker Hub.

PHP.Watch also has guides on compiling PHP on Debian/Ubuntu-based systems and Fedora/RHEL-based systems.

MacOS builds for PHP 8.3 from shivammathur/homebrew-php tap are also available under [email protected] formula.

As always, note that PHP 8.3 Release Candidates are only meant to be used to test the upcoming PHP version, and is not ready for production systems.