PHP, which stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws upon C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. The main goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated webpages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP. This manual consists primarily of a function reference, but also contains a language reference, explanations of some of PHP's major features, and other supplemental information. You can download this manual in several formats at &url.php.doc.downloads;. More information about how this manual is developed can be found in the 'About the manual' appendix. If you are interested in the history of PHP, visit the relevant appendix. We highlight the currently most active people on the manual frontpage, but there are many more contributors who currently help in our work or provided a great amount of help to the project in the past. There are a lot of unnamed people who help out with their user notes on manual pages, which continually get included in the references, the work of whom we are also very thankful. All the lists provided below are in alphabetical order. &contributors;