RestartWorkers fails to re-resolve symlink after deployment

[tkrtmy]

What happened?

We're running FrankenPHP (RPM package, not Docker) in production with symlink-based zero-downtime deployments, and we've hit a regression in v1.11.2 that breaks our deployment flow.

Summary

Since v1.11.2 (introduced in commit e0f01d1, "Handle symlinking edge cases #1660"), symlink-based zero-downtime deployments are broken when using RestartWorkers via the admin API.

We use RPM-packaged FrankenPHP (not the Docker image) with a Capistrano/Deployer-style deployment: on each deploy, a current symlink is atomically switched to the new release directory, then RestartWorkers is called to pick up the new code. This worked correctly in v1.11.1 but breaks in v1.11.2.

Reproduction

A minimal reproduction is available at:
https://github.com/tkrtmy/frankenphp-symlink-repro

The steps are:

Start FrankenPHP with a worker pointing to current/worker.php (where current -> releases/v1)
Switch the symlink: ln -sfn releases/v2 current
Call POST /frankenphp/workers/restart
Send a request — still served by releases/v1/worker.php ❌
Delete releases/v1 (old-release cleanup) — worker crashes and retries indefinitely with the stale path ❌

Root cause

newWorker() calls filepath.EvalSymlinks() and stores the resolved real path in worker.fileName:

// worker.go
func newWorker(o workerOpt) (*worker, error) {
    absFileName, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(o.fileName)  // resolved at startup
    ...
    w.fileName = absFileName  // stale path from this point on

RestartWorkers() reuses worker.fileName without re-resolving the symlink. The OS never gets a chance to follow the updated symlink.

Additionally, caddy/module.go also resolves symlinks at Provision() time:

resolvedPath, _ := filepath.EvalSymlinks(wc.FileName)
f.Workers[i].FileName = resolvedPath  // written once, never updated

Behavior before #1660

Before e0f01d1, newWorker() used only fastabs.FastAbs() without filepath.EvalSymlinks(). The symlink path was preserved in worker.fileName, so on each restart the OS resolved it fresh and picked up the new release automatically.

Expected behavior

After switching the symlink and calling RestartWorkers, workers should start from the new symlink target — i.e., re-evaluate the symlink at restart time, not at initial startup.

Environment

FrankenPHP: v1.11.2
OS: Linux (aarch64) / macOS (arm64)
Using RPM package (not Docker image)

Build Type

rpm packages

Worker Mode

Yes

Operating System

GNU/Linux

CPU Architecture

aarch64

PHP configuration

root@7d3c84ddbe20:/app# php -i
phpinfo()
PHP Version => 8.5.3

System => Linux 7d3c84ddbe20 6.12.69-linuxkit #1 SMP Mon Feb 16 11:19:06 UTC 2026 aarch64
Build Date => Feb 13 2026 18:31:29
Build System => Linux - Docker
Build Provider => https://github.com/docker-library/php
Configure Command =>  './configure'  '--build=aarch64-linux-gnu' '--sysconfdir=/usr/local/etc' '--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/etc/php' '--with-config-file-scan-dir=/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d' '--enable-option-checking=fatal' '--with-mhash' '--with-pic' '--enable-mbstring' '--enable-mysqlnd' '--with-password-argon2' '--with-sodium=shared' '--with-pdo-sqlite=/usr' '--with-sqlite3=/usr' '--with-curl' '--with-iconv' '--with-openssl' '--with-readline' '--with-zlib' '--enable-phpdbg' '--enable-phpdbg-readline' '--with-pear' '--with-libdir=lib/aarch64-linux-gnu' '--enable-embed' '--enable-zts' '--disable-zend-signals' 'build_alias=aarch64-linux-gnu' 'PHP_UNAME=Linux - Docker' 'PHP_BUILD_PROVIDER=https://github.com/docker-library/php'
Server API => Command Line Interface
Virtual Directory Support => enabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /usr/local/etc/php
Loaded Configuration File => (none)
Scan this dir for additional .ini files => /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d
Additional .ini files parsed => /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/docker-php-ext-sodium.ini

PHP API => 20250925
PHP Extension => 20250925
Zend Extension => 420250925
Zend Extension Build => API420250925,TS
PHP Extension Build => API20250925,TS
PHP Integer Size => 64 bits
Debug Build => no
Thread Safety => enabled
Thread API => POSIX Threads
Zend Signal Handling => disabled
Zend Memory Manager => enabled
Zend Multibyte Support => provided by mbstring
Zend Max Execution Timers => enabled
IPv6 Support => enabled
DTrace Support => disabled

Registered PHP Streams => https, ftps, compress.zlib, php, file, glob, data, http, ftp, phar
Registered Stream Socket Transports => tcp, udp, unix, udg, ssl, tls, tlsv1.0, tlsv1.1, tlsv1.2, tlsv1.3
Registered Stream Filters => zlib.*, convert.iconv.*, string.rot13, string.toupper, string.tolower, convert.*, consumed, dechunk

This program makes use of the Zend Scripting Language Engine:
Zend Engine v4.5.3, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.5.3, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies


 _______________________________________________________________________


Configuration

Core

PHP Version => 8.5.3

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
allow_url_fopen => On => On
allow_url_include => Off => Off
arg_separator.input => & => &
arg_separator.output => & => &
auto_append_file => no value => no value
auto_globals_jit => On => On
auto_prepend_file => no value => no value
browscap => no value => no value
default_charset => UTF-8 => UTF-8
default_mimetype => text/html => text/html
disable_functions => no value => no value
display_errors => STDOUT => STDOUT
display_startup_errors => On => On
doc_root => no value => no value
docref_ext => no value => no value
docref_root => no value => no value
enable_dl => On => On
enable_post_data_reading => On => On
error_append_string => no value => no value
error_log => no value => no value
error_log_mode => 0644 => 0644
error_prepend_string => no value => no value
error_reporting => no value => no value
expose_php => On => On
extension_dir => /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-zts-20250925 => /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-zts-20250925
fatal_error_backtraces => On => On
fiber.stack_size => no value => no value
file_uploads => On => On
hard_timeout => 2 => 2
highlight.comment => <span style="color: #FF8000">#FF8000</span> => <span style="color: #FF8000">#FF8000</span>
highlight.default => <span style="color: #0000BB">#0000BB</span> => <span style="color: #0000BB">#0000BB</span>
highlight.html => <span style="color: #000000">#000000</span> => <span style="color: #000000">#000000</span>
highlight.keyword => <span style="color: #007700">#007700</span> => <span style="color: #007700">#007700</span>
highlight.string => <span style="color: #DD0000">#DD0000</span> => <span style="color: #DD0000">#DD0000</span>
html_errors => Off => Off
ignore_repeated_errors => Off => Off
ignore_repeated_source => Off => Off
ignore_user_abort => Off => Off
implicit_flush => On => On
include_path => .:/usr/local/lib/php => .:/usr/local/lib/php
input_encoding => no value => no value
internal_encoding => no value => no value
log_errors => Off => Off
mail.add_x_header => Off => Off
mail.cr_lf_mode => crlf => crlf
mail.force_extra_parameters => no value => no value
mail.log => no value => no value
mail.mixed_lf_and_crlf => Off => Off
max_execution_time => 0 => 0
max_file_uploads => 20 => 20
max_input_nesting_level => 64 => 64
max_input_time => -1 => -1
max_input_vars => 1000 => 1000
max_memory_limit => -1 => -1
max_multipart_body_parts => -1 => -1
memory_limit => 128M => 128M
open_basedir => no value => no value
output_buffering => 0 => 0
output_encoding => no value => no value
output_handler => no value => no value
post_max_size => 8M => 8M
precision => 14 => 14
realpath_cache_size => 4096K => 4096K
realpath_cache_ttl => 120 => 120
register_argc_argv => Off => Off
report_memleaks => On => On
report_zend_debug => Off => Off
request_order => no value => no value
sendmail_from => no value => no value
sendmail_path => /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i => /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
serialize_precision => -1 => -1
short_open_tag => On => On
SMTP => localhost => localhost
smtp_port => 25 => 25
sys_temp_dir => no value => no value
syslog.facility => LOG_USER => LOG_USER
syslog.filter => no-ctrl => no-ctrl
syslog.ident => php => php
unserialize_callback_func => no value => no value
upload_max_filesize => 2M => 2M
upload_tmp_dir => no value => no value
user_dir => no value => no value
user_ini.cache_ttl => 300 => 300
user_ini.filename => .user.ini => .user.ini
variables_order => EGPCS => EGPCS
xmlrpc_error_number => 0 => 0
xmlrpc_errors => Off => Off
zend.assertions => 1 => 1
zend.detect_unicode => On => On
zend.enable_gc => On => On
zend.exception_ignore_args => Off => Off
zend.exception_string_param_max_len => 15 => 15
zend.max_allowed_stack_size => 0 => 0
zend.multibyte => Off => Off
zend.reserved_stack_size => 0 => 0
zend.script_encoding => no value => no value

ctype

ctype functions => enabled

curl

cURL support => enabled
cURL Information => 8.14.1
Age => 11
Features
AsynchDNS => Yes
CharConv => No
Debug => No
GSS-Negotiate => No
IDN => Yes
IPv6 => Yes
krb4 => No
Largefile => Yes
libz => Yes
NTLM => Yes
NTLMWB => No
SPNEGO => Yes
SSL => Yes
SSPI => No
TLS-SRP => Yes
HTTP2 => Yes
GSSAPI => Yes
KERBEROS5 => Yes
UNIX_SOCKETS => Yes
PSL => Yes
HTTPS_PROXY => Yes
MULTI_SSL => No
BROTLI => Yes
ALTSVC => Yes
HTTP3 => Yes
UNICODE => No
ZSTD => Yes
HSTS => Yes
GSASL => No
Protocols => dict, file, ftp, ftps, gopher, gophers, http, https, imap, imaps, ldap, ldaps, mqtt, pop3, pop3s, rtmp, rtmpe, rtmps, rtmpt, rtmpte, rtmpts, rtsp, scp, sftp, smb, smbs, smtp, smtps, telnet, tftp, ws, wss
Host => aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
SSL Version => OpenSSL/3.5.4
ZLib Version => 1.3.1
libSSH Version => libssh2/1.11.1

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
curl.cainfo => no value => no value

date

date/time support => enabled
timelib version => 2022.15
"Olson" Timezone Database Version => 2025.3
Timezone Database => internal
Default timezone => UTC

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
date.default_latitude => 31.7667 => 31.7667
date.default_longitude => 35.2333 => 35.2333
date.sunrise_zenith => 90.833333 => 90.833333
date.sunset_zenith => 90.833333 => 90.833333
date.timezone => UTC => UTC

dom

DOM/XML => enabled
DOM/XML API Version => 20031129
libxml Version => 2.9.14
HTML Support => enabled
XPath Support => enabled
XPointer Support => enabled
Schema Support => enabled
RelaxNG Support => enabled

fileinfo

fileinfo support => enabled
libmagic => 5.46

filter

Input Validation and Filtering => enabled

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
filter.default => unsafe_raw => unsafe_raw
filter.default_flags => no value => no value

hash

hash support => enabled
Hashing Engines => md2 md4 md5 sha1 sha224 sha256 sha384 sha512/224 sha512/256 sha512 sha3-224 sha3-256 sha3-384 sha3-512 ripemd128 ripemd160 ripemd256 ripemd320 whirlpool tiger128,3 tiger160,3 tiger192,3 tiger128,4 tiger160,4 tiger192,4 snefru snefru256 gost gost-crypto adler32 crc32 crc32b crc32c fnv132 fnv1a32 fnv164 fnv1a64 joaat murmur3a murmur3c murmur3f xxh32 xxh64 xxh3 xxh128 haval128,3 haval160,3 haval192,3 haval224,3 haval256,3 haval128,4 haval160,4 haval192,4 haval224,4 haval256,4 haval128,5 haval160,5 haval192,5 haval224,5 haval256,5 

MHASH support => Enabled
MHASH API Version => Emulated Support

iconv

iconv support => enabled
iconv implementation => glibc
iconv library version => 2.41

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
iconv.input_encoding => no value => no value
iconv.internal_encoding => no value => no value
iconv.output_encoding => no value => no value

json

json support => enabled

lexbor

Lexbor support => active
Lexbor version => 2.5.0

libxml

libXML support => active
libXML Compiled Version => 2.9.14
libXML Loaded Version => 20914
libXML streams => enabled

mbstring

Multibyte Support => enabled
Multibyte string engine => libmbfl
HTTP input encoding translation => disabled
libmbfl version => 1.3.2

mbstring extension makes use of "streamable kanji code filter and converter", which is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1.

Multibyte (japanese) regex support => enabled
Multibyte regex (oniguruma) version => 6.9.9

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
mbstring.detect_order => no value => no value
mbstring.encoding_translation => Off => Off
mbstring.http_input => no value => no value
mbstring.http_output => no value => no value
mbstring.http_output_conv_mimetypes => ^(text/|application/xhtml\+xml) => ^(text/|application/xhtml\+xml)
mbstring.internal_encoding => no value => no value
mbstring.language => neutral => neutral
mbstring.regex_retry_limit => 1000000 => 1000000
mbstring.regex_stack_limit => 100000 => 100000
mbstring.strict_detection => Off => Off
mbstring.substitute_character => no value => no value

mysqlnd

mysqlnd => enabled
Version => mysqlnd 8.5.3
Compression => supported
core SSL => supported
extended SSL => supported
Command buffer size => 4096
Read buffer size => 32768
Read timeout => 86400
Collecting statistics => Yes
Collecting memory statistics => No
Tracing => n/a
Loaded plugins => mysqlnd,debug_trace,auth_plugin_mysql_native_password,auth_plugin_mysql_clear_password,auth_plugin_caching_sha2_password,auth_plugin_sha256_password
API Extensions =>  

openssl

OpenSSL support => enabled
OpenSSL Library Version => OpenSSL 3.5.4 30 Sep 2025
OpenSSL Header Version => OpenSSL 3.5.4 30 Sep 2025
Openssl default config => /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
openssl.cafile => no value => no value
openssl.capath => no value => no value
openssl.libctx => custom => custom

pcre

PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) Support => enabled
PCRE Library Version => 10.44 2024-06-07
PCRE Unicode Version => 15.0.0
PCRE JIT Support => enabled
PCRE JIT Target => ARM-64 64bit (little endian + unaligned)

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
pcre.backtrack_limit => 1000000 => 1000000
pcre.jit => On => On
pcre.recursion_limit => 100000 => 100000

PDO

PDO support => enabled
PDO drivers => sqlite

pdo_sqlite

PDO Driver for SQLite 3.x => enabled
SQLite Library => 3.46.1

Phar

Phar: PHP Archive support => enabled
Phar API version => 1.1.1
Phar-based phar archives => enabled
Tar-based phar archives => enabled
ZIP-based phar archives => enabled
gzip compression => enabled
bzip2 compression => disabled (install ext/bz2)
Native OpenSSL support => enabled


Phar based on pear/PHP_Archive, original concept by Davey Shafik.
Phar fully realized by Gregory Beaver and Marcus Boerger.
Portions of tar implementation Copyright (c) 2003-2009 Tim Kientzle.
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
phar.cache_list => no value => no value
phar.readonly => On => On
phar.require_hash => On => On

posix

POSIX support => enabled

random

Version => 8.5.3

readline

Readline Support => enabled
Readline library => 8.2

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
cli.pager => no value => no value
cli.prompt => \b \>  => \b \> 

Reflection

Reflection => enabled

session

Session Support => enabled
Registered save handlers => files user 
Registered serializer handlers => php_serialize php php_binary 

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
session.auto_start => Off => Off
session.cache_expire => 180 => 180
session.cache_limiter => nocache => nocache
session.cookie_domain => no value => no value
session.cookie_httponly => Off => Off
session.cookie_lifetime => 0 => 0
session.cookie_partitioned => Off => Off
session.cookie_path => / => /
session.cookie_samesite => no value => no value
session.cookie_secure => Off => Off
session.gc_divisor => 100 => 100
session.gc_maxlifetime => 1440 => 1440
session.gc_probability => 1 => 1
session.lazy_write => On => On
session.name => PHPSESSID => PHPSESSID
session.referer_check => no value => no value
session.save_handler => files => files
session.save_path => no value => no value
session.serialize_handler => php => php
session.sid_bits_per_character => 4 => 4
session.sid_length => 32 => 32
session.upload_progress.cleanup => On => On
session.upload_progress.enabled => On => On
session.upload_progress.freq => 1% => 1%
session.upload_progress.min_freq => 1 => 1
session.upload_progress.name => PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS => PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS
session.upload_progress.prefix => upload_progress_ => upload_progress_
session.use_cookies => On => On
session.use_only_cookies => On => On
session.use_strict_mode => Off => Off
session.use_trans_sid => Off => Off

SimpleXML

SimpleXML support => enabled
Schema support => enabled

sodium

sodium support => enabled
libsodium headers version => 1.0.18
libsodium library version => 1.0.18

SPL

SPL support => enabled
Interfaces => OuterIterator, RecursiveIterator, SeekableIterator, SplObserver, SplSubject
Classes => AppendIterator, ArrayIterator, ArrayObject, BadFunctionCallException, BadMethodCallException, CachingIterator, CallbackFilterIterator, DirectoryIterator, DomainException, EmptyIterator, FilesystemIterator, FilterIterator, GlobIterator, InfiniteIterator, InvalidArgumentException, IteratorIterator, LengthException, LimitIterator, LogicException, MultipleIterator, NoRewindIterator, OutOfBoundsException, OutOfRangeException, OverflowException, ParentIterator, RangeException, RecursiveArrayIterator, RecursiveCachingIterator, RecursiveCallbackFilterIterator, RecursiveDirectoryIterator, RecursiveFilterIterator, RecursiveIteratorIterator, RecursiveRegexIterator, RecursiveTreeIterator, RegexIterator, RuntimeException, SplDoublyLinkedList, SplFileInfo, SplFileObject, SplFixedArray, SplHeap, SplMinHeap, SplMaxHeap, SplObjectStorage, SplPriorityQueue, SplQueue, SplStack, SplTempFileObject, UnderflowException, UnexpectedValueException

sqlite3

SQLite3 support => enabled
SQLite Library => 3.46.1

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
sqlite3.defensive => On => On
sqlite3.extension_dir => no value => no value

standard

Dynamic Library Support => enabled
Path to sendmail => /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
assert.active => On => On
assert.bail => Off => Off
assert.callback => no value => no value
assert.exception => On => On
assert.warning => On => On
auto_detect_line_endings => Off => Off
default_socket_timeout => 60 => 60
from => no value => no value
session.trans_sid_hosts => no value => no value
session.trans_sid_tags => a=href,area=href,frame=src,form= => a=href,area=href,frame=src,form=
unserialize_max_depth => 4096 => 4096
url_rewriter.hosts => no value => no value
url_rewriter.tags => form= => form=
user_agent => no value => no value

tokenizer

Tokenizer Support => enabled

uri

URI support => active
uriparser bundled version => 1.0.0

xml

XML Support => active
XML Namespace Support => active
libxml2 Version => 2.9.14

xmlreader

XMLReader => enabled

xmlwriter

XMLWriter => enabled

Zend OPcache

Opcode Caching => Disabled
Optimization => Disabled
SHM Cache => Enabled
File Cache => Disabled
JIT => Disabled
Startup Failed => Opcode Caching is disabled for CLI

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
opcache.blacklist_filename => no value => no value
opcache.dups_fix => Off => Off
opcache.enable => On => On
opcache.enable_cli => Off => Off
opcache.enable_file_override => Off => Off
opcache.error_log => no value => no value
opcache.file_cache => no value => no value
opcache.file_cache_consistency_checks => On => On
opcache.file_cache_only => Off => Off
opcache.file_cache_read_only => Off => Off
opcache.file_update_protection => 2 => 2
opcache.force_restart_timeout => 180 => 180
opcache.huge_code_pages => Off => Off
opcache.interned_strings_buffer => 8 => 8
opcache.jit => disable => disable
opcache.jit_bisect_limit => 0 => 0
opcache.jit_blacklist_root_trace => 16 => 16
opcache.jit_blacklist_side_trace => 8 => 8
opcache.jit_buffer_size => 64M => 64M
opcache.jit_debug => 0 => 0
opcache.jit_hot_func => 127 => 127
opcache.jit_hot_loop => 61 => 61
opcache.jit_hot_return => 8 => 8
opcache.jit_hot_side_exit => 8 => 8
opcache.jit_max_exit_counters => 8192 => 8192
opcache.jit_max_loop_unrolls => 8 => 8
opcache.jit_max_polymorphic_calls => 2 => 2
opcache.jit_max_recursive_calls => 2 => 2
opcache.jit_max_recursive_returns => 2 => 2
opcache.jit_max_root_traces => 1024 => 1024
opcache.jit_max_side_traces => 128 => 128
opcache.jit_max_trace_length => 1024 => 1024
opcache.jit_prof_threshold => 0.005 => 0.005
opcache.lockfile_path => /tmp => /tmp
opcache.log_verbosity_level => 1 => 1
opcache.max_accelerated_files => 10000 => 10000
opcache.max_file_size => 0 => 0
opcache.max_wasted_percentage => 5 => 5
opcache.memory_consumption => 128 => 128
opcache.opt_debug_level => 0 => 0
opcache.optimization_level => 0x7FFEBFFF => 0x7FFEBFFF
opcache.preferred_memory_model => no value => no value
opcache.preload => no value => no value
opcache.preload_user => no value => no value
opcache.protect_memory => Off => Off
opcache.record_warnings => Off => Off
opcache.restrict_api => no value => no value
opcache.revalidate_freq => 2 => 2
opcache.revalidate_path => Off => Off
opcache.save_comments => On => On
opcache.use_cwd => On => On
opcache.validate_permission => Off => Off
opcache.validate_root => Off => Off
opcache.validate_timestamps => On => On

zlib

ZLib Support => enabled
Stream Wrapper => compress.zlib://
Stream Filter => zlib.inflate, zlib.deflate
Compiled Version => 1.3.1
Linked Version => 1.3.1

Directive => Local Value => Master Value
zlib.output_compression => Off => Off
zlib.output_compression_level => -1 => -1
zlib.output_handler => no value => no value

Additional Modules

Module Name

Environment

Variable => Value
HOSTNAME => 7d3c84ddbe20
PHP_VERSION => 8.5.3
PHP_INI_DIR => /usr/local/etc/php
GPG_KEYS => 1198C0117593497A5EC5C199286AF1F9897469DC 49D9AF6BC72A80D6691719C8AA23F5BE9C7097D4 D95C03BC702BE9515344AE3374E44BC9067701A5
XDG_DATA_HOME => /data
GODEBUG => cgocheck=0
XDG_CONFIG_HOME => /config
PHP_LDFLAGS => -Wl,-O1 -pie
PWD => /app
HOME => /root
PHP_SHA256 => ce65725b8af07356b69a6046d21487040b11f2acfde786de38b2bfb712c36eb9
PHPIZE_DEPS => autoconf                 dpkg-dev                file            g++             gcc             libc-dev                make   pkg-config               re2c
TERM => xterm
PHP_URL => https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.5.3.tar.xz
SHLVL => 1
PHP_CFLAGS => -fstack-protector-strong -fpic -fpie -O2 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
PATH => /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
PHP_ASC_URL => https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.5.3.tar.xz.asc
PHP_CPPFLAGS => -fstack-protector-strong -fpic -fpie -O2 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
_ => /usr/local/bin/php

PHP Variables

Variable => Value
$_SERVER['HOSTNAME'] => 7d3c84ddbe20
$_SERVER['PHP_VERSION'] => 8.5.3
$_SERVER['PHP_INI_DIR'] => /usr/local/etc/php
$_SERVER['GPG_KEYS'] => 1198C0117593497A5EC5C199286AF1F9897469DC 49D9AF6BC72A80D6691719C8AA23F5BE9C7097D4 D95C03BC702BE9515344AE3374E44BC9067701A5
$_SERVER['XDG_DATA_HOME'] => /data
$_SERVER['GODEBUG'] => cgocheck=0
$_SERVER['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] => /config
$_SERVER['PHP_LDFLAGS'] => -Wl,-O1 -pie
$_SERVER['PWD'] => /app
$_SERVER['HOME'] => /root
$_SERVER['PHP_SHA256'] => ce65725b8af07356b69a6046d21487040b11f2acfde786de38b2bfb712c36eb9
$_SERVER['PHPIZE_DEPS'] => autoconf             dpkg-dev                file            g++             gcc             libc-dev               make             pkg-config              re2c
$_SERVER['TERM'] => xterm
$_SERVER['PHP_URL'] => https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.5.3.tar.xz
$_SERVER['SHLVL'] => 1
$_SERVER['PHP_CFLAGS'] => -fstack-protector-strong -fpic -fpie -O2 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
$_SERVER['PATH'] => /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
$_SERVER['PHP_ASC_URL'] => https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.5.3.tar.xz.asc
$_SERVER['PHP_CPPFLAGS'] => -fstack-protector-strong -fpic -fpie -O2 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
$_SERVER['_'] => /usr/local/bin/php
$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] => 
$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] => 
$_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'] => 
$_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED'] => 
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] => 
$_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT'] => 1772187107.2954
$_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME'] => 1772187107
$_ENV['HOSTNAME'] => 7d3c84ddbe20
$_ENV['PHP_VERSION'] => 8.5.3
$_ENV['PHP_INI_DIR'] => /usr/local/etc/php
$_ENV['GPG_KEYS'] => 1198C0117593497A5EC5C199286AF1F9897469DC 49D9AF6BC72A80D6691719C8AA23F5BE9C7097D4 D95C03BC702BE9515344AE3374E44BC9067701A5
$_ENV['XDG_DATA_HOME'] => /data
$_ENV['GODEBUG'] => cgocheck=0
$_ENV['XDG_CONFIG_HOME'] => /config
$_ENV['PHP_LDFLAGS'] => -Wl,-O1 -pie
$_ENV['PWD'] => /app
$_ENV['HOME'] => /root
$_ENV['PHP_SHA256'] => ce65725b8af07356b69a6046d21487040b11f2acfde786de38b2bfb712c36eb9
$_ENV['PHPIZE_DEPS'] => autoconf                dpkg-dev                file            g++             gcc             libc-dev               make             pkg-config              re2c
$_ENV['TERM'] => xterm
$_ENV['PHP_URL'] => https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.5.3.tar.xz
$_ENV['SHLVL'] => 1
$_ENV['PHP_CFLAGS'] => -fstack-protector-strong -fpic -fpie -O2 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
$_ENV['PATH'] => /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
$_ENV['PHP_ASC_URL'] => https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.5.3.tar.xz.asc
$_ENV['PHP_CPPFLAGS'] => -fstack-protector-strong -fpic -fpie -O2 -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
$_ENV['_'] => /usr/local/bin/php

PHP License
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the PHP License as published by the PHP Group
and included in the distribution in the file:  LICENSE

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

If you did not receive a copy of the PHP license, or have any
questions about PHP licensing, please contact license@php.net.

Relevant log output

[henderkes]

I believe this is intended behaviour, if you want to reevaluate the symlinks, you need to systemctl reload caddy (which will also restart workers).

[henderkes]

Unrelated, but I'm confused: you say you are using the rpm packages, but your phpinfo output shows you are using Docker frankenphp?

[tkrtmy]

To add some context on our deployment setup:
We originally used POST /load (equivalent to caddy reload) to restart workers after each deployment, but we observed that requests arriving during the reload were occasionally receiving 503 responses. To avoid that, we switched to calling POST /frankenphp/workers/restart, which is documented as restarting workers gracefully. Since making that change, we have not seen any 503s.

The reproduction steps in this issue reflect our Docker-based repro environment, not our actual production configuration. We were hesitant to share production system details directly, so we reproduced the issue in Docker and used that setup instead. Apologies if that caused any confusion.