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PHP RFC: Deprecate PHP Short open tags
- Version: 0.1
- Date: 2019-03-20
- Author: George Peter Banyard, girgias@php.net
- Status: Under Discussion
- First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecate_php_short_tags
Introduction
PHP has provided over the years different ways to indicate the beginning of PHP code other than the standard <?php ... ?>
open tags. Most of these opening tags have been removed with PHP 7.0.01), however, PHP's short open tags still remain.
Proposal
Deprecate and disable short_open_tag
in PHP 7.4 and remove PHP short open tags in PHP 8.0.
Reasoning
- The PHP documentation discourages their usage.
- PHP short open tags clash with XML
<?xml ?>
and can mean two different things depending on the INI configuration. - PHP short open tags depend on an INI directive and as such are non-portable.
Backward Incompatible Changes
Every script which currently uses the discouraged short <?
open tag will need to convert to the standard <?php
open tag.
Proposed PHP Version(s)
Deprecation notice and default value changed to Off in PHP 7.4 and removal in PHP 8.0
RFC Impact
To SAPIs
None to my understanding.
To Existing Extensions
None to my understanding.
To Opcache
None to my understanding.
php.ini Defaults
Change short_open_tag
from “1”
to “0”
Unaffected PHP Functionality
The <?=
short tag is unaffected because as of PHP 5.4 it is always available.
Proposed Voting Choices
As with all new RFCs this proposal requires a 2/3 majority
Vote
Patches and Tests
https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/3972 PHP 7.4 Deprecation Notice Implementation
https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/3975 PHP 8 Removal Implementation
TBD Documentation patch
Implementation
After the project is implemented, this section should contain
- the version(s) it was merged into
- a link to the git commit(s)
- a link to the PHP manual entry for the feature
- a link to the language specification section (if any)