In 2017, HHVM was the performance shortcut: Facebook's JIT, WordPress and Laravel faster than Ubuntu's PHP 5.6/7.0. Nine years later, Zend Engine won the game — PHP 7, then 8, proper OPcache, JIT in 8.0, and in 2026, PHP 8.5.10 (27 August) already comes with built-in OPcache. Anyone still typing apt install hhvm with PHP in mind is installing a VM for another language.
From HipHop to Hack: what HHVM was
Facebook grew tired of interpreting PHP in 2010. First came HPHPc: a PHP-to-C++ transpiler. Compiling the entire site at every deployment was slow, eval() did not exist, and the performance ceiling arrived. In 2011, Jason Evans announced the successor: HipHop Virtual Machine. Code becomes HHBC bytecode; the JIT translates it to x86-64 at runtime. In the first quarter of 2013, facebook.com abandoned HPHPc.
Along with HHVM 3.0 (March 2014) came Hack: PHP with gradual typing, without goto and without variable variables. The VM began serving two languages. In September 2018, Fred Emmott stated the obvious — PHP 7 had diverged too far. 3.30 would be the last with PHP. On 11 February 2019, 4.0 removed <?php from the map. Those who wanted fast WordPress stayed with PHP-FPM; HHVM remained for Meta's Hack (and, for a time, Slack's).
What changed since 2017
- Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 ended. Current LTS releases: 24.04 (PHP 8.3 in the repositories) and 26.04 Resolute (PHP 8.5 by default).
- PHP 8.5 shipped on 20 November 2025; the patch from 27 August 2026 is 8.5.10. OPcache stopped being an optional extension — it is in the core. JIT with a default buffer of 64 MB.
- The repository
dl.hhvm.comand the GPG key0x5a16e7281be7a449from this post no longer serve PHP. The later key (0xB4112585D386EB94) does not bring back an HHVM that runs Laravel either. - On 27 October 2023, Paul Bissonette announced: no official releases, no GCC, the code remains on GitHub for those who compile it. There is no
aptpackage reliable for PHP production.
2026: PHP 8.5 and PHP-FPM on Ubuntu
If the goal of the 2017 post was “faster PHP on Ubuntu,” this is it today. On 26.04, PHP 8.5 is already in the official archive:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php-cli php-fpm php-mysql php-xml php-mbstring php-curl php-zip php-gd php-intl php-bcmath
php -v
# PHP 8.5.x (cli) … with Zend OPcache v8.5.x
systemctl status php8.5-fpm --no-pager
On 24.04 LTS the archive provides 8.3. For 8.5, Ondřej Surý's PPA (the same one as always):
sudo LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php8.5-cli php8.5-fpm php8.5-{mysql,xml,mbstring,curl,zip,gd,intl,bcmath}
sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php8.5
php -v
There is no package php8.5-opcache: OPcache is part of the runtime. FPM socket: /run/php/php8.5-fpm.sock.
OPcache and JIT, what HHVM promised
The gains HHVM sold in 2016 (Kinsta, WordPress, Drupal) are delivered by PHP 8 with OPcache enabled and, for CPU workloads, with JIT. In FPM:
sudo tee /etc/php/8.5/fpm/conf.d/99-opcache.ini <<'EOF'
opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=256
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=32
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
opcache.validate_timestamps=0
opcache.jit=tracing
opcache.jit_buffer_size=64M
EOF
sudo systemctl restart php8.5-fpm
php -i | grep -E 'opcache.enable|opcache.jit'
validate_timestamps=0 in production: after deployment, restart FPM. JIT helps little with plain WordPress (database I/O); it helps in CPU-bound sections. Do not enable Xdebug in front of JIT.
Nginx in front of FPM
HHVM spoke FastCGI. So does PHP-FPM. In Nginx, fastcgi_pass points to the version's socket:
location ~ .php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.5-fpm.sock;
}
sudo apt install nginx
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx
Those hosting multiple sites on the same Ubuntu machine can still add a control panel on top — this blog's older coverage is in ISPConfig on Debian and in the history of ISPConfig.
Still want Hack?
Then HHVM makes sense. Not for PHP. The runtime lives at facebook/hhvm (commits continue in 2026); the language at hacklang.org. A ready-made package for current Ubuntu is not the production route: Meta no longer publishes releases. Compile from git, use an old Docker image or the company's internal binary. Extension .hack, typechecker hh_client, HTTP through built-in Proxygen or FastCGI. WordPress, Laravel, and Composer are not on that list.
Historical record: what this post installed in 2017
Ubuntu 14.04/16.04, old GPG key, HHVM 3.15.2 speaking PHP 5 and part of 7. Do not run this on a new machine.
# NÃO use em 2026 — chave e série obsoletas
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0x5a16e7281be7a449
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://dl.hhvm.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install hhvm
hhvm --version
# HipHop VM 3.15.2 (rel)
The output at the time: compiler tags/HHVM-3.15.2, repo schema 608339137764e8365964a1adaa7a27d125b6076f. The original “About HHVM” still talked about “Hack and PHP.” That phrase died in 4.0.
Wrap-up
HHVM won the argument of 2014–2017: JIT, Hack, facebook.com without HPHPc. PHP 7/8 copied the performance lesson and kept the ecosystem. In 2026, on Ubuntu, apt install php-fpm is this how-to's successor. The orange H on the cover still belongs to the VM — but the VM now speaks Hack, not the index.php of your WordPress.
The kernel underneath: Linux turns 35. A container around it, if applicable: The history of Docker.