Re: [Vote] Add form feed as a whitespace character in trim, ltrim and rtrim

On 2/4/26 11:16, Volker Dusch wrote:

On Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 1:39 AM Ben Ramsey <ramsey@php.net> wrote:

I've voted "no" on this RFC since the RFC says the proposed PHP version is PHP 8.5, which I interpret as meaning PHP 8.6, since 8.5 was released in November. Even if PHP 8.6 is the proposed version, I still think the target version should be PHP 9.0, since this is a BC break. I mentioned my concern about this being a BC break in the discussion thread. The RFC is also clear this is a BC break. It says:

This is a **backward incompatible change**. Scripts that rely on trim() *preserving* leading or trailing Form Feed characters will be affected.

I'm a little surprised by the number of folks who voted "yes" on this, despite it being very clear this is a BC break and PHP "Next" is the implied proposed version. Cheers, Ben

I would urge you to reconsider. Pushing all bug fixes with extremely minor BC implications into a single release that happens every 5-7 years will create problems with adoption. This fix should, imho, very clearly go into 8.6. Every minor ships with a BC list. E.g. https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration85.incompatible.php and there is nothing I can think of that is more minor than this change (maybe except adding deprecations). Kind regards, Volker

FWIW, I didn't call for the voting to be stopped. I pointed out the RFC was changed on the day voting began to target PHP 8.5 (from 8.6) without notifying the list, and I was worried those who voted might not have noticed the change. Cheers, Ben