Bug #52277 [NEW]: fatal error with call_user_func and function with by-reference arguments

From: Operating system: Ubuntu 10.04 PHP version: 5.3.2 Package: Scripting Engine problem Bug Type: Bug Bug description:fatal error with call_user_func and function with by-reference arguments Description: ------------ I have a Drupal site. It worked ok until I upgraded php to 5.3.2. It simply fails, nothing is written to the error log or on the screen. I tracked down the problem to the following point: * in some file, there is this call: return call_user_func($hook_function, $variables, $suggestions); where $hook_function is _phptemplate_page * _phptemplate_page function is defined as: function _phptemplate_page(&$variables, &$suggestions) { .... } If I remove the & before variables, the site works. I know the by-reference variable behavior changed in 5.3.2 from 5.2, but in this case, the actual parameters are still 2 variables (not constants). Cheers, Andrei Test script: --------------- <?php function testfnc1($x) { echo "testfnc1: $x "; } function testfnc2(&$x) { echo "testfnc2: $x "; } $y = 'works'; call_user_func('testfnc1', $y); call_user_func('testfnc2', $y); Expected result: ---------------- testfnc1: works testfnc2: works Actual result: -------------- testfnc1: works -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52277&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.2): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=trysnapshot52 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (trunk): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=needdocs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=php4 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52277&r=mysqlcfg