Context

Short Leash needs PHP 8.0 to 8.5 for macOS without Homebrew, with the extensions frameworks need.

Decision

Download static-php-cli builds (cli and fpm) per minor version over HTTPS (static-php-cli publishes no checksums yet). Build Xdebug on demand against php.net headers for each version.

Consequences

No system dependencies. Shared extensions such as Xdebug load into the static binaries (see Spikes). Windows will use the official Windows builds instead.