Bug #63087 [NEW]: Passing a reference to a function does not work when parentheses are used

From: charlie at charliesomerville dot com Operating system: Linux PHP version: master-Git-2012-09-14 (Git) Package: Scripting Engine problem Bug Type: Bug Bug description:Passing a reference to a function does not work when parentheses are used Description: ------------ To be specific, this only occurs when passing a reference returned by a function into another function that takes a reference. This behaves as expected with a variable instead of a function call, so I believe this is a bug. Test script: --------------- <?php function &return_a() { global $a; return $a; } $a = [1,2,3]; array_shift(return_a()); print_r($a); $a = [1,2,3]; array_shift((return_a())); print_r($a); Expected result: ---------------- Array ( [0] => 2 [1] => 3 ) Array ( [0] => 2 [1] => 3 ) Actual result: -------------- Array ( [0] => 2 [1] => 3 ) Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 ) -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=63087&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=needdocs Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=63087&r=mysqlcfg