PHP 7.4 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 ======================================== - Core: . Referencing parent:: inside a class that does not have a parent will now generate a compile-time error. Previously the error was only emitted at run-time. - Curl: . Attempting to serialize a CURLFile class will now generate an exception. Previously the exception was only thrown on unserialization. - Date: . Calling var_dump() or similar on a DateTime(Immutable) instance will no longer leave behind accessible properties on the object. - Intl: . The default parameter value of idn_to_ascii() and idn_to_utf8() is now INTL_IDNA_VARIANT_UTS46 instead of the deprecated INTL_IDNA_VARIANT_2003. - Openssl: . The openssl_random_pseudo_bytes() function will now throw an exception in error situations, similar to random_bytes(). In particular, an Error is thrown if the number of requested bytes is smaller *or equal* than zero, and an Exception is thrown is sufficient randomness cannot be gathered. The $crypto_strong output argument is guaranteed to always be true if the function does not throw, so explicitly checking it is not necessary. RFC: http://php.net/manual/de/function.openssl-random-pseudo-bytes.php - PDO: . Attempting to serialize a PDO or PDOStatement instance will now generate an Exception rather than a PDOException, consistent with other internal classes which do not support serialization. - Reflection: . Reflection objects will now generate an exception if an attempt is made to serialize them. Serialization for reflection objects was never supported and resulted in corrupted reflection objects. It has been explicitly prohibited now. - SPL: . Calling get_object_vars() on an ArrayObject instance will now always return the properties of the ArrayObject itself (or a subclass). Previously it returned the values of the wrapped array/object unless the STD_PROP_LIST flag was specified. Other affected operations are: * ReflectionObject::getProperties() * reset(), current(), etc. Use Iterator methods instead. * Potentially others working on object properties as a list. (array) casts are *not* affected. They will continue to return either the wrapped array, or the ArrayObject properties, depending on whether the STD_PROP_LIST flag is used. . SplPriorityQueue::setExtractFlags() will throw an exception if zero is passed. Previously this would generate a recoverable fatal error on the next extraction operation. ======================================== 2. New Features ======================================== - Core: . Added support for typed properties. For example: class User { public int $id; public string $name; } This will enforce that $user->id can only be assigned integer and $user->name can only be assigned strings. For more information see the RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/typed_properties_v2 - PDO_OCI: . PDOStatement::getColumnMeta() is now available - PDO_SQLite: . PDOStatement::getAttribute(PDO::SQLITE_ATTR_READONLY_STATEMENT) allows to check whether this statement is read-only, i.e. whether it doesn't modify the database. ======================================== 3. Changes in SAPI modules ======================================== ======================================== 4. Deprecated Functionality ======================================== - Core: . Unbinding $this of a non-static method through a combination of ReflectionMethod::getClosure() and closure rebinding is deprecated. Doing so is equivalent to calling a non-static method statically, which has been deprecated since PHP 7.0. ======================================== 5. Changed Functions ======================================== - SPL: . SplFileObject::fputcsv(), ::fgetcsv() and ::setCsvControl() now accept an emptry string as $escape argument, which disables the propriertary PHP escaping mechanism. SplFileObject::getCsvControl() now may also return an empty string for the third array element, accordingly. - Standard: . fputcsv() and fgetcsv() now accept an emptry string as $escape argument, which disables the propriertary PHP escaping mechanism. The behavior of str_getcsv() has been adjusted accordingly (formerly, an empty string was identical to using the default). ======================================== 6. New Functions ======================================== - OpenSSL: . Added openssl_x509_verify(mixed cert, mixed key) function that verifies the signature of the certificate using a public key. A wrapper around the OpenSSL's X509_verify() function. See . - SQLite3: . Added SQLite3Stmt::getSQL() to retrieve the SQL of the statement. If TRUE is passed as parameter, query parameters will be replaced in the return value by their currently bound value, if libsqlite ≥ 3.14 is used. ======================================== 7. New Classes and Interfaces ======================================== ======================================== 8. Removed Extensions and SAPIs ======================================== ======================================== 9. Other Changes to Extensions ======================================== - GD: . Freetype detection now relies on pkg-config. The --with-freetype-dir option has been renamed to --with-freetype and no longer accepts a directory. Instead pkg-config environment variables can be used to configure custom paths, see either ./configure --help or follow the instructions in error messages. . The behavior of imagecropauto() in the bundled libgd has been synced with that of system libgd: * IMG_CROP_DEFAULT is no longer falling back to IMG_CROP_SIDES * Threshold-cropping now uses the algorithm of system libgd . The default $mode parameter of imagecropauto() has been changed to IMG_CROP_DEFAULT; passing -1 is now deprecated. . imagescale() now supports aspect ratio preserving scaling to a fixed height by passing -1 as $new_width. - Hash: . The hash extension cannot be disabled anymore and is always an integral part of any PHP build, similar to the date extension. - Intl: . The Intl extension now requires at least ICU 50.1. - Libxml: . All libxml based extensions now require libxml 2.7.6 or newer. - Reflection: . Numeric value of class, property, function and constant modifiers was changed. Don't filter methods and properties through ReflectionClass::getMethods() and ReflectionClass::getProperties(), or test results of Reflection...::getModifiers(), using hard-coded numeric values. Use corresponding constants instead (e.g. ReflectionMethod::IS_PUBLIC). - SQLite3: . The bundled libsqlite has been removed. To build the SQLite3 extension a system libsqlite3 ≥ 3.7.4 is now required. To build the PDO_SQLite extension a system libsqlite3 ≥ 3.5.0 is now required. . (Un)serialization of SQLite3, SQLite3Stmt and SQLite3Result is now explictly forbidden. Formerly, serialization of instances of these classes was possible, but unserialization yielded unusable objects. . The @param notation can now also be used to denote SQL query parameters. - Zip: . The bundled libzip library has been removed. A system libzip >= 0.11 is now necessary to build the extension. ======================================== 10. New Global Constants ======================================== - Tidy: . TIDY_TAG_ARTICLE . TIDY_TAG_ASIDE . TIDY_TAG_AUDIO . TIDY_TAG_BDI . TIDY_TAG_CANVAS . TIDY_TAG_COMMAND . TIDY_TAG_DATALIST . TIDY_TAG_DETAILS . TIDY_TAG_DIALOG . TIDY_TAG_FIGCAPTION . TIDY_TAG_FIGURE . TIDY_TAG_FOOTER . TIDY_TAG_HEADER . TIDY_TAG_HGROUP . TIDY_TAG_MAIN . TIDY_TAG_MARK . TIDY_TAG_MENUITEM . TIDY_TAG_METER . TIDY_TAG_NAV . TIDY_TAG_OUTPUT . TIDY_TAG_PROGRESS . TIDY_TAG_SECTION . TIDY_TAG_SOURCE . TIDY_TAG_SUMMARY . TIDY_TAG_TEMPLATE . TIDY_TAG_TIME . TIDY_TAG_TRACK . TIDY_TAG_VIDEO ======================================== 11. Changes to INI File Handling ======================================== ======================================== 12. Windows Support ======================================== - stat: . The stat implementation has been refactored. - An inode number is delivered and is based on the NTFS file index. - The device number is now based on the volume serial number. Note, that both values derived from the system and provided as is on 64-bit systems. On 32-bit system, these values might overflow the 32-bit integer in PHP, so they're a fake. ======================================== 13. Other Changes ======================================== ======================================== 14. Performance Improvements ======================================== - Core: . A specialized VM opcode for the array_key_exists() function has been added, which improves performance of this function if it can be statically resolved. In namespaced code, this may require writing \array_key_exists() or explicitly importing the function.