Re: [PRE-RFC] PREG_THROW_ON_ERROR flag

Hi On 2026-07-07 03:17, Osama Aldemeery wrote:

I'd like to propose adding a PREG_THROW_ON_ERROR flag to the preg_*() functions, and gauge interest in that.

I personally hate this kind of flag, because of its opt-in nature. But given the precedent and unless and until we rebuild the regex API in a clean and modern way, it makes sense to me as a “stop-gap” solution that should allow to get rid of some custom userland code that wraps pcre into explicit checks.

Passing it to any preg_*() call makes a PCRE error throw a Pcre\PcreException that carries the PREG_*_ERROR code and the preg_last_error_msg() text

Pcre\PcreException would technically be fully in line with the naming and Throwable policy, by including the extension name as the prefix. However the existing PCRE functions use preg_ as a prefix, it will probably be confusing to have the two different prefixes here. Given that, I would suggest going with an unnamespaced \PregException for now and then only introduce a namespace when actually building a new API to not paint us into a corner already. The naming policy specifically allows for that:

When adding new symbols to existing extensions it is RECOMMENDED to be consistent with existing symbols, rather than to follow the namespacing guidelines.

and

Newly introduced extensions MUST follow the following rules, existing extensions SHOULD follow the rules for newly introduced exceptions, but MAY diverge for consistency with existing symbols.

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2. Whether *_ON_ERROR reads better than *_ON_FAILURE given the existing preg_last_error()/PREG_*_ERROR vocabulary.

I would go with ERROR for the reasons you mentioned there. Best regards Tim Düsterhus