Bug #72698 [Com]: Function started giving "expected to be a reference, value given"

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=72698&edit=1 ID: 72698 Comment by: daniel dot k at siteground dot com Reported by: daniel dot k at siteground dot com Summary: Function started giving "expected to be a reference, value given" Status: Closed Type: Bug Package: Variables related Operating System: CentOS PHP Version: 7.0.9 Assigned To: nikic Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Thank you for the assistance. We created our own 7.0.9 package without the commits in question and all sites started working as expected. On a side note, I thought minor releases are not supposed to break the backwards compatibility but obviously sometimes such commits are missed until hundreds of sites are affected :) Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-28 16:54:06] nikic@php.net In the interest of backwards compatibility I've reverted the commit from PHP-7.0: https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/3b48c5a36f7f903ecf206ff5c46a125f7edfee49 Additionally, I've added an UPGRADING note for PHP-7.1: https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/1315a3dd620926ba1f57eccb3081ab7c64d7a31f ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-28 09:49:57] cmb@php.net It seems to me that's caused by <https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/fafe01b>. Shouldn't we add info about that in NEWS and/or UPGRADING, Nikita? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-28 08:06:37] daniel dot k at siteground dot com I forgot to mentioned that we tested the latest commits from Github and the issue is still present with 7.0.9. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-07-28 07:58:20] daniel dot k at siteground dot com Description: ------------ After an upgrade from PHP 7.0.8 to 7.0.9 several sites hosted on our infrastructure stopped working. One of the sites is a WordPress site which uses a plugin called W3 Total Cache. The plugin works just fine with PHP 7.0.8 and when PHP 7.0.9 is used the site just gives a blank page. The entries in the logs are: Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_Plugin_Minify::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_Plugin_Cdn::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_PgCache::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_Plugin_Minify::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_Plugin_Cdn::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_PgCache::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_Plugin_Minify::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_Plugin_Cdn::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 Warning: Parameter 1 to W3_PgCache::ob_callback() expected to be a reference, value given in /wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/inc/functions/plugin.php on line 23 The issue and the solution are also explained in this blog post: https://www.itnota.com/fixing-php7-compatibility-issue-w3-total-cache/ Other applications such as vBulletin and Joomla! are also experiencing similar issues. The question here is why 7.0.9 causes the sites to go down and the same code works with 7.0.8. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=72698&edit=1