#24931 [Bgs->Opn]: call_user_func ignores requirement of references

ID: 24931 User updated by: rehsack at liwing dot de Reported By: rehsack at liwing dot de -Status: Bogus +Status: Open Bug Type: Scripting Engine problem Operating System: FreeBSD 5.1 i386 PHP Version: 4.3.3RC2, 5.0.0b2-dev New Comment: Hi Ilia, your wrong, because: $ cat test1.php <?PHP function nextId( &$id ) { $id += 1; } $id = 1; echo "before call_user_func id=$id\n"; call_user_func( "nextId", &$id ); echo "after call_user_func id=$id\n"; call_user_func_array( "nextId", array( &$id ) ); echo "after call_user_func_array id=$id\n"; ?> $ php test1.php Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated - argument passed by value; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration of call_ user_func(). If you would like to enable call-time pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in your INI file. However, future versions may not support this any longer. in /var/www/data/trevor/flexpage/test/php-bugs/test1.php on line 10 before call_user_func id=1 after call_user_func id=2 after call_user_func_array id=3 This gives the wanted result but prints out a warning. By the way, I don't want to discus whether call_user_func is implemented as described neither it's not working as designed. I want to tell you (as php team), that the design might be wrong. Either, if you (as php team) don't have any plans to extend the design (what shouldn't be to complicated), I consider you update the documentation that way, that you describe that call_user_func will duplicate the given argument. call_user_func is not an intelligent function (what it could be), it's a dumb one (this is not an offending but it is like a dumb terminal as some old unix ones). I want to consider by this bug report to rewrite call_user_func becomes intelligent (looks what kind of argument is required and calls that way). Otherwise I had to open a documentation bug, because this behaviour should be documented explicitely. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-08-04 13:37:42] iliaa@php.net Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php $id is modified because the original $id passed to call_user_func() is not being passed by reference. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-08-04 03:22:31] rehsack at liwing dot de Description: ------------ The method call_user_func ignores requirement of called function takes it's arguments as reference. The results in several times very ugly and hard to find bugs, eg. if you use a template pattern combined with composite to control child templates and want to do an action in each child object and require to work on current data copy. Either, if call_user_func internally is able to be called by reference, some programs could be speed up, too (because of the loose of expensive string copies) This bug may related to #24631 but seems to have another background. I can submit a more complicated example using templates and a composite object to illustrate the problem. Enabling call-time references in php.ini would solve this problem by don't write a warning but I don't think it's a good way to solve... Reproduce code: --------------- <?PHP function nextId( &$id ) { $id += 1; } $id = 1; echo "before call_user_func id=$id\n"; call_user_func( "nextId", $id ); echo "after call_user_func id=$id\n"; call_user_func_array( "nextId", array( &$id ) ); echo "after call_user_func_array id=$id\n"; ?> Expected result: ---------------- before call_user_func id=1 after call_user_func id=2 after call_user_func_array id=3 Actual result: -------------- before call_user_func id=1 after call_user_func id=1 after call_user_func_array id=2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=24931&edit=1