<b>This week in caching: getting more out of OPcache than defaults give you</b>

<b>This week in caching: getting more out of OPcache than defaults give you</b>
Four items for PHP folks who set <code>opcache.enable=1</code> and stopped there.
— <b>opcache.preload for framework hot paths</b> — PHP 7.4+ preloading pins Symfony/Laravel core classes in shared memory at startup; real-world reports show 10-15% on framework-heavy requests.
— <b>validate_timestamps=0 in prod</b> — stop stat-ing every file on every request; just remember to <code>opcache_reset()</code> on deploy or you'll serve old code.
— <b>JIT is not a cache, and won't help your CRUD app</b> — Tideways' benchmark: JIT shines on math, near-zero on typical web I/O. Skip the hype.
— <b>opcache.interned_strings_buffer tuning</b> — raise it before <code>memory_consumption</code> if you see wasted_memory climbing.
<b>Bookmark:</b> Tideways' OPcache deep dive — the production config section is copy-paste ready.