PHP RFC: Deprecations for PHP 8.6

• Date: 2025-10-12
• Authors:
  • Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net
  • Alexandre Daubois alexandredaubois@php.net
• Status: Draft
• Implementation: 8.6
  • TBD

The RFC proposes to deprecate the listed functionality in PHP 8.6 and remove it in PHP 9 (except where otherwise noted).

The following list provides a short overview of the functionality targeted for deprecation, while more detailed explanation is provided in the Proposal section:

• Passing objects for $array parameter of array_walk() and array_walk_recursive()
• Passing objects for $options parameter of deflate_init() and inflate_init()
• Passing objects to ArrayObject::exchangeArray()
• Deprecate strcoll()
• Deprecate SORT_LOCALE_STRING flag for sort() functions
• Providing invalid values to log() second argument
• Providing an invalid sorting order to scandir()
• Providing invalid values to “work” and “blocks” options of the “bzip2.compress” filter
• Deprecate mail.add_x_header INI setting
• Deprecate mysqli::stmt_init

Each feature proposed for deprecation is voted separately and requires a 2/3 majority. All votes refer to deprecation in PHP 8.6 and removal in PHP 9 (except where otherwise noted).

• Author: Name name@example.com

Description

• Author: Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net

TODO: Reason to get rid of 'A' ZPP specifier Fallback: get_object_vars()

The recursive version doesn't recursive if a value/property is an object. Due to taking by reference this breaks readonly properties, which is a similar issue that the ArrayObject with backing object deprecation is addressing

• Author: Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net

TODO: Reason to get rid of 'H' ZPP specifier Fallback: get_object_vars()

• Author: Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net

TODO: Follow-up of 8.5 ArrayObject with objects deprecation https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_8_5#deprecate_arrayobject_and_arrayiterator_with_objects

• Author: Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net

TODO:

• Not binary safe
• Relies on global state from setlocale()
• Alternative: Collator::compare()

• Author: Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net

TODO:

• Not binary safe, as internally it relies on the same behaviour as strcoll
• Relies on global state from setlocale()
• Alternative: Collator::sort(), Collator::asort(), Collator::sort(), Collator::sortWithSortKeys()

• Author: Alexandre Daubois alexandredaubois@php.net

Providing 1 or any number less or equal to 0 results on a NaN result. This is error-prone. Deprecating then throwing a ValueError in PHP 9.0 would help early error detection and avoid propagating a NaN value.

• Author: Alexandre Daubois alexandredaubois@php.net

Providing an invalid value to the flags of scandir()'s sorting order is currently ignored and falls back to default values. Deprecating such behavior then throwing a ValueError in PHP 9.0 would help error detection and avoid undesired behavior when an invalid value is provided.

• Author: Alexandre Daubois alexandredaubois@php.net

Providing invalid values to the work and blocks options currently silently fails and falls back to default values when using the stream filter bzip2.compress. This may lead to unexpected behavior and difficult error detection. A too low value for work, a too high value for work, a too low value for blocks and a too high value for blocks should be deprecated and will throw a ValueError in PHP 9.0.

• Author: Gina Peter Banyard girgias@php.net

TODO:

This is one of PHP's “expose yourself” INI settings that adds a X-PHP-Originating-Script header to every email send via the internal php_mail() function (called by mail, error_log(), and mb_mail()).

It is off by default, and we don't see any reason why one would enable it. Moreover, it is trivially done by adding the header in the corresponding header parameter as followed:

mail("To", "Subject", "Message", ['X-PHP-Originating-Script' => getmyuid() . ':' . basename(__SELF__)]);

• Author: Kamil Tekiela

There doesn't seem to be a good reason for this function to exist. All it does is create a barren `mysqli_stmt` object that still needs to be prepared before use. It is the source of many ways in which mysqli objects can be left in an inconsistent state. It looks like it is only used in PHP unit tests, and in most cases for no good reason. Since this function doesn't provide any tangible value and leads to confusing code, it should be removed to reduce language complexity.

$stmt = $mysqli->stmt_init();
$stmt->prepare($sql);
// To:
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare($sql);

An alternative and almost unknown way of calling this function is through the constructor, which is equally useless. This proposal includes the deprecation of this feature, i.e. calling mysqli_stmt::__construct without the second argument.

$stmt = new mysqli_stmt($mysqli);
$stmt->prepare($sql);
// To:
$stmt = new mysqli_stmt($mysqli, $sql);

For PHP 8.6 additional deprecation notices will be emitted. The actual removal of the affected functionality will happen no earlier than PHP 9.

The following entries were originally added to this proposal and then dropped.