Doc #80486 [Opn->Ver]: Undocumented backward incompatible change between 7.4.8 and 7.4.9

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=80486&edit=1 ID: 80486 Updated by: cmb@php.net Reported by: php4fan at gmail dot com Summary: Undocumented backward incompatible change between 7.4.8 and 7.4.9 -Status: Open +Status: Verified Type: Documentation Problem -Package: Documentation problem +Package: Scripting Engine problem Operating System: all PHP Version: Irrelevant -Assigned To: +Assigned To: cmb Block user comment: N Private report: N Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2020-12-05 12:48:26] cmb@php.net Like Dan said, the behavioral change is caused by fixing that bug, but passing the result of an internal function call to a by-ref parameter shouldn't have worked in the first place. I agree that this should not be documented in the migration guide, but we rather should improve the documentation of "passing arguments by reference"[1], which does not even mention that values should not or must not, respectively, passed to reference parameters. [1] <https://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.arguments.php#functions.arguments.by-reference> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2020-12-04 22:11:38] danack@php.net Possibly from the fix for bug #79783 https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/971e5c5186a2a2339b0dbad4f2a057a9deed5aa2 Although your example doesn't crash, it was only working by coincidence, rather than being a safe thing to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2020-12-04 19:31:59] danack@php.net Hey Teo, The migration guide is for migrating between versions that are meant to have changes. There is also list of bug fixes for each version: https://www.php.net/ChangeLog-7.php#PHP_7_4 but I can't currently see it listed....which is not good. There should be an entry for it as it is definitely different behaviour, so thanks for reporting it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2020-12-04 19:17:06] php4fan at gmail dot com Description: ------------ --- From manual page: https://php.net/migration74.incompatible --- Something has changed between 7.4.8 and 7.4.9 that affects passing parameters to a function by eference. Leaving aside the fact that such bc-breaking changes shouldn't be introduced between sub-minor versions (i.e. from x.x.y to x.x.z) to begin with, this change is not documented. I would expect to find it here: https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration74.incompatible.php (given that there is not a section named "migrating from 7.4.8 to 7.4.9) The script below runs without errors or warnings in all versions <= 7.4.8 (including ancient ones), and causes fatal errors starting from 7.4.9 See https://3v4l.org/SMK9U Test script: --------------- <?php function test(&$value) { echo $value; } test(intval(3)); Expected result: ---------------- bc-breaking change should be documented ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=80486&edit=1