Error “Unable to load dynamic library ‘xmlrpc.so’” (SOLVED)

When running a web server or running PHP scripts on the command line, you may encounter an error:

PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'xmlrpc.so' (tried: /usr/lib/php/modules/xmlrpc.so (/usr/lib/php/modules/xmlrpc.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory), /usr/lib/php/modules/xmlrpc.so.so (/usr/lib/php/modules/xmlrpc.so.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)) in Unknown on line 0

In fact, this is not an error at all, but just a warning. That is, the server and PHP scripts should still work fine.

This warning says that when PHP starts up, the dynamic library 'xmlrpc.so' (PHP module) cannot be loaded. An attempt was made to download this file from all typical locations, but could not be found anywhere.

XMLRPC is an extension that was included in PHP that brought XML RPC server and client functions to PHP.

This extension was relatively unused and was labeled “experimental” all along. This extension relied on some libraries that had not been supported for several years.

The xmlrpc extension is no longer bundled with PHP since PHP 8.0. You can still install the extension from PECL if your code or any dependencies require it.

If you do not need this extension, then in the php.ini file find the line

extension=xmlrpc.so

and comment it out to get:

;extension=xmlrpc.so

If you really need this extension, then install it from PECL, or use one of the following alternatives:

• phpxmlrpc/phpxmlrpc
• zendframework/zend-xmlrpc
• lstrojny/fxmlrpc
• laminas/laminas-xmlrpc