Req #75922 [Opn]: default_charset cannot be disabled in Content-Type

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=75922&edit=1 ID: 75922 Updated by: requinix@php.net Reported by: bugs at jth dot net Summary: default_charset cannot be disabled in Content-Type Status: Open Type: Feature/Change Request Package: PHP options/info functions Operating System: Linux PHP Version: 7.1.14 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: > You are in no position to require that users should use a single character set in PHP. Please don't put words in my mouth. All I asked was why they had PHP configured to use one default_charset (if not UTF-8 by default) but were serving HTML documents in another charset. With a database, PHP, and the browser, all it takes is one incorrect character encoding setting or practice to create headaches that can last for years. Besides the "nuisance" call to header() you already know about, setting default_charset empty is currently the only way I see to prevent adding the charset= to the Content-Type. I don't know the exact reasons for why it's not recommended to have it empty, but I am sure that setting default_charset to the charset in use is a good idea. And it certainly does not have to be set to the same value for all requests to a server, let alone the same for all users. I still don't see a good reason for why this behavior should be (optionally) disabled but I'll leave this open. > yes, it is a bug in ATS Precisely. Someone over there forgot that Content-Types can specify media type parameters https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec3.html#sec3.7 Omitting the charset= in the header would be a workaround; fixing the tool to be aware of the structure of a Content-Type header so that it could match the media type properly would be the solution. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2018-02-06 10:09:53] spam2 at rhsoft dot net > Having default_charset not match the actual charset used is a recipe for disaster that unasked header too! https://github.com/apache/trafficserver/issues/2849 yes, it is a bug in ATS, but without the unasked charset in the content-ytpe header this issue would not exist at all ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2018-02-06 09:59:21] bugs at jth dot net You are in no position to require that users should use a single character set in PHP. There are a number of reasons why different charsets and languages should coexist on the same web server. It was working perfectly fine in php5, but is now broken after upgrading to php7. Apache2 httpd.conf # # Specify a default charset for all content served; this enables # interpretation of all content as UTF-8 by default. To use the # default browser choice (ISO-8859-1), or to allow the META tags # in HTML content to override this choice, comment out this # directive: # #AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 This is working by commenting out or specifying AddDefaultCharset Off There should be a similar option in PHP I have experimented with default_charset = "" internal_encoding = "UTF-8" which apparently is working, but I am not sure, especially not when the PHP documentation states "Setting default_charset to an empty value is not recommended." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2018-02-06 09:31:48] requinix@php.net Having default_charset not match the actual charset used is a recipe for disaster. Why aren't they changing that? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2018-02-06 09:16:40] bugs at jth dot net Description: ------------ default_charset in php7 is now a mess being used in two different contexts. It should be two different options: one for internal encoding and one for enabling/disabling being output in the Content-Type: header. The Content-Type: header is overriding the meta tag in the document, which different users are creating in different charsets using the meta tag. php is often used for simple functions not involving or regardless of the charset e.g. database functions. It is a nuisance and prone to error having the users to specify the charset both as an unnecessary header() call and as a meta tag. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=75922&edit=1