PHP 8.4 UPGRADE NOTES 1. Backward Incompatible Changes 2. New Features 3. Changes in SAPI modules 4. Deprecated Functionality 5. Changed Functions 6. New Functions 7. New Classes and Interfaces 8. Removed Extensions and SAPIs 9. Other Changes to Extensions 10. New Global Constants 11. Changes to INI File Handling 12. Windows Support 13. Other Changes 14. Performance Improvements ======================================== 1. Backward Incompatible Changes ======================================== - CLI: . The builtin server looks for an index file recursively by traversing parent directories in case the specified file cannot be located. This process was previously skipped if the path looked like it was referring to a file, i.e. if the last path component contained a period. In that case, a 404 error was returned. The behavior has been changed to look for an index file in all cases. - Core: . The type of PHP_DEBUG and PHP_ZTS constants changed to bool. - DOM: . Added DOMNode::compareDocumentPosition() and DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_* constants. If you have a method or constant with the same name, you might encounter errors if the declaration is incompatible. . Some DOM methods previously returned false or a PHP_ERR DOMException if a new node could not be allocated. They consistently throw an INVALID_STATE_ERR DOMException now. This situation is extremely unlikely though and probably will not affect you. As a result DOMImplementation::createDocument() now has a tentative return type of DOMDocument instead of DOMDocument|false. . Previously, DOMXPath objects could be cloned, but resulted in an unusable object. This is no longer possible, and cloning a DOMXPath object now throws an error. - Intl: . resourcebundle_get(), ResourceBundle::get(), and accessing offsets on a ResourceBundle object now throw: - TypeError for invalid offset types - ValueError for an empty string - ValueError if the integer index does not fit in a signed 32 bit integer - MBString: . mb_encode_numericentity() and mb_decode_numericentity() now check that the $map is only composed of integers, if not a ValueError is thrown. . mb_http_input() now always throws a ValueError if the $type is invalid. . mb_http_output() now checks that the $encoding parameter does not contain any null bytes. If it does, a ValueError is now thrown. . On invalid strings (those with encoding errors), mb_substr() now interprets character indices in the same manner as most other mbstring functions. This means that character indices returned by mb_strpos() can be passed to mb_substr(). . For SJIS-Mac (MacJapanese) strings, character indices passed to mb_substr() now refer to the indices of the Unicode codepoints which are produced when the string is converted to Unicode. This is significant because around 40 SJIS-Mac characters convert to a sequence of multiple Unicode codepoints. - ODBC: . odbc_fetch_row() returns false when a value less than or equal to 0 is passed for parameter $row. Now, a warning is emitted in this case. - Opcache: . The JIT config defaults changed from opcache.jit=tracing and opcache.jit_buffer_size=0 to opcache.jit=disable and opcache.jit_buffer_size=64M, respectively. This does not affect the default behavior, the JIT is still disabled by default. However, it is now disabled through the opcache.jit setting, rather than opcache.jit_buffer_size. This may affect users who previously enabled JIT through opcache.jit_buffer_size exclusively, without also specifying a JIT mode using opcache.jit. To enable JIT, set the opcache.jit config value accordingly. . The maximum value of the opcache.interned_strings_buffer setting on 64bit architectures is now 32767 (it was previously 4095). - PCRE: . The bundled pcre2lib has been updated to version 10.43. As a consequence, this means {,3} is now recognized as a quantifier instead of as text. Furthermore, the meaning of some character classes in UCP mode has changed. Consult https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/blob/master/NEWS for a full changelog. - PDO_DBLIB: . setAttribute, DBLIB_ATTR_STRINGIFY_UNIQUEIDENTIFIER and DBLIB_ATTR_DATETIME_CONVERT have been changed to set value as a bool. - PDO_FIREBIRD: . getAttribute, ATTR_AUTOCOMMIT has been changed to get the value as a bool. - PDO_MYSQL: . getAttribute, ATTR_AUTOCOMMIT, ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, MYSQL_ATTR_DIRECT_QUERY have been changed to get values as bool. - PDO_PGSQL: . The DSN's credentials, when set, are given priority over their PDO constructor counterparts, being closer to the documentation states. - PCNTL: . The functions pcntl_sigprocmask(), pcntl_sigwaitinfo() and pcntl_sigtimedwait() now throw: - A ValueError if the $signals array is empty (except for pcntl_sigprocmask() if the $mode is SIG_SETMASK). - A TypeError if a value of the $signals array is not an integer - A ValueError if a value of the $signals array is not a valid signal number Moreover, those functions now always return false on failure. In some case previously it could return the value -1. . The function pcntl_sigprocmask() will also now throw: - A ValueError if $mode is not one of SIG_BLOCK, SIG_UNBLOCK, or SIG_SETMASK . The function pcntl_sigtimedwait() will also now throw: - A ValueError if $seconds is less than 0 - A ValueError if $nanoseconds is less than 0 or greater than 1e9 - A ValueError if both $seconds and $nanoseconds are 0 - SimpleXML: . Get methods called, or casting to a string on a SimpleXMLElement will no longer implicitly reset the iterator data, unless explicitly rewound. For example, casting an element to a string within a foreach loop would cause an infinite loop because it destroyed the current iterator data. This is no longer the case as a consequence of the bugfixes for GH-12192, GH-12208, #55098. . Calling simplexml_import_dom() with a non-XML object now throws a TypeError instead of a ValueError. - SPL: . Out of bounds accesses in SplFixedArray now throw an exception of type OutOfBoundsException instead of RuntimeException. As OutOfBoundsException is a child class of RuntimeException, code that uses RuntimeException continues to function. - Standard: . round() now validates the value of the $mode parameter and throws a ValueError for invalid modes. Previously invalid modes would have been interpreted as PHP_ROUND_HALF_UP. . strcspn() with empty $characters now returns the length of the string instead of incorrectly stopping at the first NUL character. See GH-12592. - XML: . The xml_set_*_handler() functions now declare and check for an effective signature of callable|string|null for the $handler parameters. Moreover, values of type string that correspond to method names, of object set with xml_set_object() are now checked to see if the method exists on the class of the previously passed object. This means that xml_set_object() must now always be called prior to setting method names as callables. Passing an empty string to disable the handler is still allowed, but not recommended. - XSL: . XSLTProcessor::setParameter() will now throw a ValueError when its arguments contain null bytes. This never actually worked correctly in the first place, which is why it throws an exception nowadays. . Failure to call a PHP function callback during evaluation now throws instead of emitting a warning. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/improve_callbacks_dom_and_xsl . Calling XSLTProcessor::importStyleSheet() with a non-XML object now throws a TypeError instead of a ValueError. ======================================== 2. New Features ======================================== - Core: . Added request_parse_body() function that allows parsing RFC1867 (multipart) requests in non-POST HTTP requests. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/rfc1867-non-post . Getting the debug info for WeakReference will now also output the object it references, or null if the reference is no longer valid. . The output of Closure::__debugInfo() now includes the name, file, and line of the Closure. - Curl: . curl_version() returns an additional feature_list value, which is an associative array of all known Curl features, and whether they are supported (true) or not (false). - Date: . Added static methods DateTime[Immutable]::createFromTimestamp(int|float $timestamp): static. . Added method DateTime[Immutable]::getMicrosecond(): int. . Added method DateTime[Immutable]::setMicrosecond(int $microsecond): static. - DOM: . Added constant DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED. . Added constant DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING. . Added constant DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING. . Added constant DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS. . Added constant DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY. . Added constant DOMNode::DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC. . It is now possible to pass any callable to registerPhpFunctions(). RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/improve_callbacks_dom_and_xsl - FPM: . Flushing headers without a body will now succeed. See GH-12785. - Intl: . NumberFormatter::ROUND_HALFODD added to complement existing NumberFormatter::ROUND_HALFEVEN functionality. - Phar: . Added support for the unix timestamp extension for zip archives. - PCRE: . The bundled pcre2lib has been updated to version 10.43. As a consequence, LoongArch JIT support has been added, spaces are now allowed between braces in Perl-compatible items, and variable-length lookbehind assertions are now supported. . Added support for the "r" (PCRE2_EXTRA_CASELESS_RESTRICT) modifier, as well as the (?r) mode modifier. When enabled along with the case-insensitive modifier ("i"), the expression locks out mixing of ASCII and non-ASCII characters. - PDO: . Added support for driver-specific subclasses. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/pdo_driver_specific_subclasses This RFC adds subclasses for PDO in order to better support database-specific functionalities. The new classes are instantiatable either via calling the PDO::connect() method or by invoking their constructor directly. - PDO_DBLIB: . Added class PdoDbLib. - PDO_FIREBIRD: . Added class PdoFirebird. - PDO_MYSQL: . Added class PdoMysql. - PDO_ODBC: . Added class PdoOdbc. - PDO_PGSQL: . Added class PdoPgsql. - PDO_SQLITE: . Added class PdoSqlite. - POSIX: . Added constant POSIX_SC_CHILD_MAX . Added constant POSIX_SC_CLK_TCK - Readfile: . Added ability to change .php_history path through PHP_HISTFILE env variable. - Reflection: . ReflectionAttribute now contains a $name property to improve the debugging experience. . ReflectionClassConstant::__toString() and ReflectionProperty::__toString() now returns the attached doc comments. . ReflectionConstant was introduced. - Standard: . stream_bucket_make_writeable() and stream_bucket_new() will now return a StreamBucket instance instead of an stdClass instance. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/dedicated_stream_bucket - SOAP: . Added support for clark notation for namespaces in class map. It is now possible to specify entries in a class map with clark notation to resolve a type with a specific namespace to a specific class. For example: '{http://example.com}foo' => 'FooClass'. . Instances of DateTimeInterface that are passed to xsd:datetime or similar elements are now serialized as such instead of being serialized as an empty string. - XSL: . It is now possible to use parameters that contain both single and double quotes. . It is now possible to pass any callable to registerPhpFunctions(). RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/improve_callbacks_dom_and_xsl . Added XSLTProcessor::$maxTemplateDepth and XSLTProcessor::$maxTemplateVars to control the recursion depth of XSL template evaluation. ======================================== 3. Changes in SAPI modules ======================================== ======================================== 4. Deprecated Functionality ======================================== - Core: . Implicitly nullable parameter types are now deprecated. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecate-implicitly-nullable-types - Curl: . The CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER constant is deprecated. - Date: . Calling DatePeriod::__construct(string $isostr, int $options = 0) is deprecated. Use DatePeriod::createFromISO8601String() instead. - Intl: . Calling intlcal_set() as well as calling IntlCalendar::set() with more than 2 arguments is deprecated. Use either IntlCalendar::setDate() or IntlCalendar::setDateTime() instead. . Calling intlgregcal_create_instance() as well as calling IntlGregorianCalendar::__construct() with more than 2 arguments is deprecated. Use either IntlGregorianCalendar::createFromDate() or IntlGregorianCalendar::createFromDateTime() instead. - LDAP: . Calling ldap_connect() with more than 2 arguments is deprecated. Use ldap_connect_wallet() instead. . Calling ldap_exop() with more than 4 arguments is deprecated. Use ldap_exop_sync() instead. - PgSQL: . Calling pgsql_fetch_result() with 2 arguments is deprecated. Use the 3-parameter signature with a null $row parameter instead. . Calling pg_field_prtlen() with 2 arguments is deprecated. Use the 3-parameter signature with a null $row parameter instead. . Calling pg_field_is_null() with 2 arguments is deprecated. Use the 3-parameter signature with a null $row parameter instead. - Reflection: . Calling ReflectionMethod::__construct() with 1 argument is deprecated. Use ReflectionMethod::createFromMethodName() instead. - Session: . Calling session_set_save_handler() with more than 2 arguments is deprecated. Use the 2-parameter signature instead. - Standard: . Calling stream_context_set_option() with 2 arguments is deprecated. Use stream_context_set_options() instead. ======================================== 5. Changed Functions ======================================== - Core: . trigger_error() and user_error() now have a return type of true instead of bool. - DOM: . DOMDocument::registerNodeClass() now has a tentative return type of true. Previously, the return type was bool but only true could be returned in practice. - Gettext: . bind_textdomain_codeset, textdomain and d(*)gettext functions now throw an exception if the domain argument is empty. - Hash: . Changed the return type of hash_update() to true. It was already the case that only true could be returned, but the stub was not updated yet. - Intl: . IntlDateFormatter::__construct() throws a ValueError if the locale is invalid. . NumberFormatter::__construct() throws a ValueError if the locale is invalid. . NumberFormatter::ROUND_TOWARD_ZERO and NumberFormatter::ROUND_AWAY_FROM_ZERO have been added as aliases for NumberFormatter::ROUND_DOWN and NumberFormatter::ROUND_UP to be consistent with the new PHP_ROUND_* modes. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/new_rounding_modes_to_round_function . ResourceBundle::get() now has a tentative return type of: ResourceBundle|array|string|int|null - MBString: . The behavior of mb_strcut is more consistent now on invalid UTF-8 and UTF-16 strings. (For valid UTF-8 and UTF-16 strings, there is no change.) - OpenSSL: . The extra_attributes parameter in openssl_csr_new sets CSR attributes instead of subject DN which was incorrectly done previously. . The dn parameter in openssl_csr_new allows setting array of values for a single entry. . New serial_hex parameter added to openssl_csr_sign to allow setting serial number in the hexadecimal format. - ODBC: . Parameter $row of odbc_fetch_object(), odbc_fetch_array(), and odbc_fetch_into() now has a default value of null, consistent with odbc_fetch_row(). Previously, the default values were -1, -1, and 0, respectively. - Output: . Output handler status flags passed to the flags parameter of ob_start are now cleared. - PDO: . getAttribute, enabled to get the value of ATTR_STRINGIFY_FETCHES. - PDO_FIREBIRD: . getAttribute, enabled to get values of FB_ATTR_DATE_FORMAT, FB_ATTR_TIME_FORMAT, FB_ATTR_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT. . Added new attributes to specify transaction isolation level and access mode. Along with these, five constants (PDO::FB_TRANSACTION_ISOLATION_LEVEL, PDO::FB_READ_COMMITTED, PDO::FB_REPEATABLE_READ, PDO::FB_SERIALIZABLE, PDO::FB_WRITABLE_TRANSACTION) have been added. . When using persistent connections, there is now a liveness check in the constructor. - PDO_MYSQL: . getAttribute, enabled to get the value of ATTR_FETCH_TABLE_NAMES. - PGSQL: . pg_select, the conditions arguments accepts an empty array and is optional. - POSIX: . posix_isatty now sets the error number when the file descriptor/stream argument is invalid. - Sockets: . Parameter $backlog of socket_create_listen() now has a default value of SOMAXCONN. Previously, it was 128. - SPL: . SplPriorityQueue::insert() and SplPriorityQueue::recoverFromCorruption() now has a tentative return type of true . SplHeap::insert() and SplHeap::recoverFromCorruption() now has a tentative return type of true instead of bool - Standard: . The internal implementation for rounding to integers has been rewritten to be easier to verify for correctness and to be easier to maintain. Some rounding bugs have been fixed as a result of the rewrite. For example previously rounding 0.49999999999999994 to the nearest integer would have resulted in 1.0 instead of the correct result 0.0. Additional inputs might also be affected and result in different outputs compared to earlier PHP versions. . The default value of the 'cost' option for PASSWORD_BCRYPT for password_hash() has been increased from '10' to '12'. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/bcrypt_cost_2023 . Four new modes have been added to the round() function: PHP_ROUND_CEILING, PHP_ROUND_FLOOR, PHP_ROUND_TOWARD_ZERO, PHP_ROUND_AWAY_FROM_ZERO. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/new_rounding_modes_to_round_function . debug_zval_dump() now indicates whether an array is packed. . Fixed a bug caused by "pre-rounding" of the round() function. Previously, using "pre-rounding" to treat a value like 0.285 (actually 0.28499999999999998) as a decimal number and round it to 0.29. However, "pre-rounding" incorrectly rounds certain numbers, so this fix removes "pre-rounding" and changes the way numbers are compared, so that the values are correctly rounded as decimal numbers. . long2ip() now returns string instead of string|false. . The maximum precision that can be handled by round() has been extended by one digit. . output_add_rewrite_var() now uses url_rewriter.hosts instead of session.trans_sid_hosts for selecting hosts that will be rewritten. ======================================== 6. New Functions ======================================== - DOM: . Added DOMNode::compareDocumentPosition(). . Added DOMXPath::registerPhpFunctionNS(). RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/improve_callbacks_dom_and_xsl . Added DOMXPath::quote() to quote a string for use in an XPath expression. Example usage: "//span[contains(text()," . $xpath->quote($string) . ")]" - Intl: . Added IntlDateFormatter::getIanaID()/intltz_get_iana_id() to the IANA identifier from a given timezone. . Added grapheme_str_split which allow to support emoji and Variation Selectors. - MBString: . Added mb_trim, mb_ltrim and mb_rtrim functions. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mb_trim Note: this was amended by GH-13820 to fix GH-13815. . Added mb_ucfirst and mb_lcfirst functions. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/mb_ucfirst - Opcache: . If JIT is enabled, PHP will now exit with a fatal error on startup in case of JIT startup initialization issues. - PCNTL: . Added pcntl_setns allowing a process to be reassociated with a namespace in order to share resources with other processes within this context. . Added pcntl_getaffinity to get the cpu(s) bound to a process and pcntl_setaffinity to bind 1 or more cpus to a process. . Added pcntl_getcpu to get the cpu id from where the current process runs. . Added pcntl_getqos_class to get the QoS level (aka performance and related energy consumption) of the current process and pcntl_setqos_class to set it. - Sodium: . Added the sodium_crypto_aead_aegis128l_*() and sodium_crypto_aead_aegis256l_*() functions to support the AEGIS family of authenticated encryption algorithms, that was introduced in libsodium 1.0.19. . sodium_crypto_aead_aes256gcm_*() functions are now enabled on aarch64 CPUs with the ARM cryptographic extensions. - Standard: . Added the http_get_last_response_headers() and http_clear_last_response_headers() that allows retrieving the same content as the magic $http_response_header variable. - XSL: . Added XSLTProcessor::registerPhpFunctionNS(). RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/improve_callbacks_dom_and_xsl ======================================== 7. New Classes and Interfaces ======================================== - DOM: . Implemented DOM HTML5 parsing and serialization. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/domdocument_html5_parser. This RFC adds the new DOM namespace along with new classes and constant aliases. There are two new classes to handle HTML and XML documents: DOM\HTMLDocument and DOM\XMLDocument. These classes provide a cleaner API to handle HTML and XML documents. Furthermore, the DOM\HTMLDocument class implements spec-compliant HTML5 parsing and serialization. . Implemented opt-in ext/dom spec compliance RFC. This adds new classes in the DOM namespace that correspond to modern equivalents to the old DOM classes in the global namespaces. The new classes follow the DOM living spec. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/opt_in_dom_spec_compliance ======================================== 8. Removed Extensions and SAPIs ======================================== - IMAP: . The IMAP extension has been unbundled and moved to PECL. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/unbundle_imap_pspell_oci8 - PSpell: . The pspell extension has been unbundled and moved to PECL. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/unbundle_imap_pspell_oci8 ======================================== 9. Other Changes to Extensions ======================================== - Curl: . The Curl extension now requires at least libcurl 7.61.0. - Intl: . The class constants are typed now. - Intl: . The OpenSSL extension now requires at least OpenSSL 1.1.1. - PDO: . The class constants are typed now. - Reflection: . The class constants are typed now. - Spl: . The class constants are typed now. - Sqlite: . The class constants are typed now. - XMLReader: . The class constants are typed now. - XSL: . The typed properties XSLTProcessor::$cloneDocument and XSLTProcessor::$doXInclude are now declared. ======================================== 10. New Global Constants ======================================== - Core: . PHP_OUTPUT_HANDLER_PROCESSED. - Intl: . The IntlDateFormatter class exposes now the new PATTERN constant reflecting udat api's UDAT_PATTERN. . The IntlChar class exposes now the new PROPERTY_IDS_UNARY_OPERATOR (new IDS binary operator), PROPERTY_ID_COMPAT_MATH_START, PROPERTY_ID_COMPAT_MATH_CONTINUE (both for mathematical identifier profiling purpose) constants. - LDAP: . LDAP_OPT_X_TLS_PROTOCOL_MAX. . LDAP_OPT_X_TLS_PROTOCOL_TLS1_3. - LibXML: . LIBXML_RECOVER. - OpenSSL: . X509_PURPOSE_OCSP_HELPER. . X509_PURPOSE_TIMESTAMP_SIGN. - PCNTL: . QosClass::Background (macOs only). . QosClass::Default (macOs only). . QosClass::UserInteractive (macOs only). . QosClass::UserInitiated (macOs only). . QosClass::Utility (macOs only). . SIGCKPT (DragonFlyBSD only). . SIGCKPTEXIT (DragonFlyBSD only). - Standard: . PHP_ROUND_CEILING. . PHP_ROUND_FLOOR. . PHP_ROUND_TOWARD_ZERO. . PHP_ROUND_AWAY_FROM_ZERO. - Sockets: . SO_EXCLUSIVEADDRUSE (Windows only). . SOCK_CONN_DGRAM (NetBSD only). . SOCK_DCCP (NetBSD only). . TCP_SYNCNT (Linux only). . SO_EXCLBIND (Solaris/Illumos only). - Sodium: . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS128L_KEYBYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS128L_NSECBYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS128L_NPUBBYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS128L_ABYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS256_KEYBYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS256_NSECBYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS256_NPUBBYTES . SODIUM_CRYPTO_AEAD_AEGIS256_ABYTES - XML: . Added XML_OPTION_PARSE_HUGE to allow large inputs in xml_parse and xml_parse_into_struct. RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/xml_option_parse_huge. ======================================== 11. Changes to INI File Handling ======================================== ======================================== 12. Windows Support ======================================== ======================================== 13. Other Changes ======================================== * Closure names have been adjusted to include the parent function's name and the line of definition to make them easier to distinguish, for example within stack traces. ======================================== 14. Performance Improvements ======================================== - Core: . Improved the performance of floating point number parsing and formatting in ZTS builds under highly concurrent loads. This affects the `printf()` family of functions as well as serialization functions such as `json_encode()`, `serialize()`. - DOM: . The performance of DOMNode::C14N() is greatly improved for the case without an xpath query. This can give a time improvement of easily two order of magnitude for documents with tens of thousands of nodes. - FTP: . Improved the performance of FTP uploads up to a factor of 10x for large uploads. - MBString: . The performance of strspn() and strcspn() is greatly improved. They now run in linear time instead of being bounded by quadratic time. . mb_strcut() is much faster now for UTF-8 and UTF-16 strings. . Looking up mbstring encoding names is much faster now. . The performance of converting SJIS-win to unicode is greatly improved. - MySQLnd: . Improved the performance of MySQLnd quoting. - Standard: . Improved the performance of strpbrk(). . get_browser() is much faster now, up to 1.5x - 2.5x for some test cases.