PHP 8.7 INTERNALS UPGRADE NOTES

1. Internal API changes

2. Build system changes

3. Module changes

4. OpCode changes

5. SAPI changes

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1. Internal API changes
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- Added zend_module_entry.child_init_func, an optional void callback invoked by
  php_child_init() in the child process after core child initialization. It runs
  in module dependency order for started modules and may run before a request
  starts or during an active request. Initialize it with a designated
  initializer such as `.child_init_func = callback` after
  STANDARD_MODULE_PROPERTIES_EX.
- Removed the ZEND_LOG_XOR() macro.
- Removed the ZEND_TRUTH() macro.
- Removed zend_execute_scripts(). Manually call zend_execute_script() in a loop
  instead.
- Removed ZEND_STATIC_ASSERT(). Use C11 static_assert() directly instead.
- Removed zend_atomic.h and the zend_atomic_* types and functions.
  Use the standard C11 atomic_* types and functions instead.
- The sapi_terminate_process() function was removed.
- The sapi_force_http_10() function was removed.
- The sapi_get_fd() function was removed.
- The sapi_get_target_uid() and sapi_get_target_gid() functions were removed.
- Removed HAVE_NORETURN and HAVE_NORETURN_ALIAS. ZEND_NORETURN is guaranteed to
  work.
- Redefined ZEND_NORETURN to make use of the [[noreturn]] attribute for C++
  and C23, which means that ZEND_NORETURN needs to come first in the modifier
  list. Consider using noreturn (C11) / [[noreturn]] (C23) directly if
  header interoperability is not required.
- The signature of zend_is_callable() has been changed to
  zend_is_callable(const zval *callable, zend_fcall_info_cache *fcc, char **error)
  from zend_is_callable(const zval *callable, uint32_t check_flags, zend_string **callable_name).
  This new signature covers the most common parameters used with zend_is_callable_ex().
- Removed zend_hrtime_posix_clock_id. zend_hrtime() always uses CLOCK_MONOTONIC
  on POSIX platforms.
- Function pointer signature for interface_gets_implemented has been made void.
  Implementations are expected to use zend_error_noreturn upon failure.
- Added a new zend_object_copy() function which increases the refcount of
  a zend_object* and returns it. Allowing more descriptive code rather than
  doing an assignment followed by GC_ADDREF().
- Added zend_call_method_if_exists_ex() which accepts named parameters and
  retrieving the callability failure error message.
- The INIT_CLASS_ENTRY_INIT_METHODS() macro, which was previously used as
  part of handling disabled classes, was removed following the removal of
  the `disable_classes` INI setting in PHP 8.5.
- Using zend_array_destroy() on HashTables with a custom pDestructor is not
  allowed anymore. User-facing HashTables must have pDestructor = ZVAL_PTR_DTOR
  or NULL, and must be freed with zend_array_destroy(). Other HashTables can be
  freed with zend_hash_destroy() + pefree().
- The ZTS symbols compiler_globals_offset and executor_globals_offset have been
  removed: CG()/EG() now reach the globals through a __thread struct.
- Removed zend_error_noreturn_unchecked().

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2. Build system changes
========================

- Windows build system changes:
  . C sources are now compiled as C17 and require C11 atomics. MSVC builds require
    Visual Studio 2026 or later and enable /experimental:c11atomics.
  . C++-only extension compiler flags can be added to CXXFLAGS_<EXTENSION>.

- Unix build system changes:
  . Autoconf minimum required version upgraded to 2.71.

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3. Module changes
========================

- Date:
  . Added php_date_time_duration_create() to create Time\Duration objects
    without going through the userland API.

- MySQLi:
  . Removed the reverse API. The mysqlnd_reverse_api.h header, the
    MYSQLND_REVERSE_API struct and the functions zval_to_mysqlnd(),
    mysqlnd_reverse_api_register_api() and mysqlnd_reverse_api_get_api_list()
    no longer exist.

- Mysqlnd:
  . In ZTS builds the values of MYSQLND_STATS are atomic_uint_least64_t and
    the LOCK_access member was removed. The MYSQLND_INC_STATISTIC*() and
    MYSQLND_DEC_STATISTIC() macros update them with relaxed atomic additions.
  . The MYSQLND_STATS_LOCK() and MYSQLND_STATS_UNLOCK() macros were removed.
    MYSQLND_STATS_UPDATE_VALUE() is now an expression instead of a block.

- Standard:
  . php_explode() now takes a HashTable* instead of a zval* to store the
    resulting parts. It already expected the zval* to be IS_ARRAY.
  . _php_math_basetozval() now returns zend_result instead of void. It throws
    an exception and returns FAILURE if the input contains invalid characters
    for the given base.
  . php_dl() has been removed, use php_load_extension() instead.

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4. OpCode changes
========================

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5. SAPI changes
========================

- The size of the SAPI structure has changed.
  . The terminate_process method has been removed.
  . The force_http_10 method has been removed.
  . The get_fd method has been removed.
  . The get_target_uid and get_target_gid methods have been removed.

- Per-thread TSRM resources are now released best-effort at normal thread exit,
  because native TLS resource destructors can only run on their owning thread and
  tsrm_shutdown() cannot release them afterwards. Prefer explicitly calling ts_free_thread().

- tsrm_shutdown() and the bundled library-unload hooks automatically disarm
  thread-exit cleanup. Embedders must stop and join all PHP worker threads
  before calling tsrm_shutdown() or unloading PHP.