editable configuration originating from APC by example...

v.php

<?php
/*
 An example of read/writable multi-threaded configuration
*/
class Config extends Stackable {
	public function __construct($config) {
		$this->map($config);
	}

	/* this makes everything safe */
	/* anything that was an array will be turned into stackable data */
	/* stackables can be referrenced as if they implement ArrayAccess
		so it does not affect any code already using the configuration array */	
	public function map($c) {
		foreach ($c as $k => $v) {
			if (is_array($v)) {
				$this[$k]=new Config($v);
			} else $this->$k = $v;
		}
	}

	public function run(){
		/* possibly stack this on a worker thread to affect subsequent processes with up-to-date configuration data */
	}
}

/* take a config object and an id */
class My extends Thread {
	public function __construct($config, $id) {
		$this->config = $config;
		$this->id = $id;
	}

	/* edits the configuration if the id is even */
	public function run() {		
		if (($this->id) % 2 == 0) {
			$this->config[$this->id]=mt_rand(	
				$this->id, $this->id*100);
		}	
	}
}

ini_set("apc.enable_cli", 1);

/* from  a previous request */
apc_store("config", array(
	"config" => "data",
	"some" => array(
		"nested" => "config"
	)
));

/* configuration can originate from APC in this thread just fine */
$config = new Config(apc_fetch("config"));

/* show */
var_dump($config);

/* the threads with an even id will edit the configuration and affect all contexts */
$threads = array();
while (++$i < 50) {
		$threads[$i]=new My($config, $i);
		$threads[$i]->start();
}

/* join to show */
foreach($threads as $thread)
	$thread->join();

/* same reference, any reference would do */
var_dump($config);
?>