Req #60219 [NEW]: POSTDATA periods (.) being converted to underscores (_)

From: Operating system: PHP version: Irrelevant Package: Unknown/Other Function Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:POSTDATA periods (.) being converted to underscores (_) Description: ------------ This is documented "intended" behavior as per this section of the manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.external.php#language.variables.external.dot-in-names I'm guessing it's a leftover from back when register_globals a common thing. It's been reported as a bug before a long time ago, and dismissed: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=30956 ... but this is 2011, and I think it's worth giving it another go. Here's why: First of all, nobody assigns POSTDATA directly to variables anymore. It all goes through $_POST; Secondly, the claim that you can't have periods in variable names is bogus (see test script). Lastly, the period is a good seperator to have available, and I understand that certain services such as OpenID depend on it, as noted here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/68651/can-i-get-php-to-stop-replacing-characters-in-get-or-post-arrays#1939911 Test script: --------------- ${'sure.you.can'} = 'Foo'; var_dump($GLOBALS['sure.you.can']); -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=60219&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=needdocs Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=60219&r=mysqlcfg