PHP RFC: Allow error_handler callback parameters to be passed by reference

• Version: 0.2
• Date: 2015-02-28
• Authors: Reeze Xia reeze@php.net, Thomas Bley mails@thomasbley.de
• Status: Declined
• First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/error_handler_callback_parameters_passed_by_reference

In userland it is sometimes necessary to extend PHP's notices/warnings with additional information (e.g. username from session, request-uri, http-host, stack trace, log-id, etc.). This reduces time and effort to analyze and fix bugs in userland code. By adding request-uri and log-id to errstr, log aggregation systems can merge the error messages to help monitoring.

We are proposing to enable error_handler callback parameters to be passed by reference to be able to append additional data to error messages.

This includes allow:

1. The first four parameters ($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline) CAN be passed by reference.

2. OR only allow $errstr parameter be reference. (depending on your vote)

Examples:

1. Add username from $_SESSION to error_log to help accounting or debugging:

test1.php

<?php
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 0);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', 'php_error.log');
 
$_SESSION['username'] = 'john';
 
function myErrorHandler($errno, &$errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
  if (!empty($_SESSION['username'])) {
    $errstr .= ', username: '.$_SESSION['username'];
  }
  return false; // continue normal error handler
}
 
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
 
echo tests.PHP_EOL; // Use of undefined constant tests

gives:

PHP Notice:  Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests', username: john in /tmp/test1.php on line 18

instead of:

PHP Notice:  Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests' in /tmp/test1.php on line 18

2. Add stack trace to error_log (without xdebug):

test2.php

<?php
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 0);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', 'php_error.log');
 
function myErrorHandler($errno, &$errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
  $exception = new ErrorException($errstr, $errno, 0, $errfile, $errline);
  $errstr .= ', '.$exception->__toString();
  return false; // continue normal error handler
}
 
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
 
function test(){
  test2('bar');
}
function test2(){
  echo tests.PHP_EOL; // Use of undefined constant tests
}
test('foo');

gives:

PHP Notice:  exception 'ErrorException' with message 'Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests'' in /tmp/test2.php:19
Stack trace:
#0 /tmp/test2.php(19): myErrorHandler(8, 'Use of undefine...', '/tmp/test....', 19, Array)
#1 /tmp/test2.php(16): test2('bar')
#2 /tmp/test2.php(21): test('foo')
#3 {main} in /tmp/test2.php on line 19

instead of:

PHP Notice:  Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests' in /tmp/test2.php on line 19

3. prefix error_log with http-host, suffix error_log with request-uri and $_REQUEST:

test3.php

<?php
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 0);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', 'php_error.log');
 
$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = 'wiki.php.net';
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = '/rfc/error_handler_callback_parameters_passed_by_reference';
$_REQUEST = array('do' => 'edit');
 
function myErrorHandler($errno, &$errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
  if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'])) {
    $errstr = '['.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].'] '.$errstr;
  }
  if (!empty($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])) {
    $errstr .= PHP_EOL.'  Request-Uri: '.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
  }
  $errstr .= PHP_EOL.'  Request-Params: '.json_encode($_REQUEST);
  $errstr .= PHP_EOL.' ';
  return false; // continue normal error handler
}
 
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
 
echo tests.PHP_EOL; // Use of undefined constant tests

gives:

PHP Notice:  [wiki.php.net] Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests'
  Request-Uri: /rfc/error_handler_callback_parameters_passed_by_reference
  Request-Params: {"do":"edit"}
  in /tmp/test3.php on line 25

instead of:

PHP Notice:  Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests' in /tmp/test3.php on line 25

Current versions of php.net allow passing parameters for a custom error handler by reference (without warnings), but they don't have any effect. Therefore, framework maintainers can use error handler callback parameters by reference without any problems in older php versions. This change is fully backward compatible.

All logged errors are still limited by log_errors_max_len (default 1024 bytes).

This is proposed for the next PHP x, currently PHP 7.

No impact

No impact

No impact

None

Performance is not affected in normal code execution. In case of an error that can be handled in user-space, we need to copy the referenced variables back to their origins.

1. Callback parameters passed by reference are currently not binary safe, example:

test_binary_safe.php

<?php
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 0);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', 'php_error.log');
 
function myErrorHandler($errno, &$errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
  $errstr .= "foo\0bar";
  return false; // continue normal error handler
}
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
 
echo tests.PHP_EOL; // Use of undefined constant tests

gives:

PHP Notice:  Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests'foo in /tmp/test_binary_safe.php on line 13

instead of:

PHP Notice:  Use of undefined constant tests - assumed 'tests'foobar in /tmp/test_binary_safe.php on line 13

This issue is not related to this rfc and handled separately on https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=68963

2. Callback parameter errstr can be changed to an empty string, example:

test_empty_errstr.php

<?php
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 0);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', 'php_error.log');
 
function myErrorHandler($errno, &$errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
  $errstr = '';
  return false; // continue normal error handler
}
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
 
echo tests.PHP_EOL; // Use of undefined constant tests

gives:

PHP Notice:   in /tmp/test_empty_errstr.php on line 13

This is similar to using the @ operator or returning true in the callback function. It is up to the userland developer to avoid this.

3. Shall we allow $errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline or only $errstr to be passed by reference?

laruence: why only one parameter can be reference, but others not?
reeze: I am afraid that modify the lineno and file seems a not good practice
yohgaki: we certainly change line/file for appropriate one. e.g. Actual cause may be in other file/line.
  Setting proper file/line may not be trivial, but it would be useful. However, one may get proper line/file by debug_backtrace() in most cases.
smalyshev: I personally think passing a bunch of params by-ref to change engine internal things like line number is not a good idea.
  With message, it could work as some kind of a stretch since message is not really an engine thing but with other params I think it's just a bad API.
yohgaki: I suggest to have options in the RFC.
  1 Make parameter reference
  For people voted for YES, choose
  1. Make message a reference
  2. Make all parameters references
NicolasGrekas: This would allow mapping "compiled" source to real source code and have meaningful error file+line information.
  By "compiled", I mean e.g. inlined classes (like the bootstrap.cache.php file in Symfony), or preprocessed sources, etc.

4. Shall we target the rfc on PHP 5.5 / 5.6 ?

Possible, but may not come into major distributions if they stick to special minor releases (e.g. Ubuntu 14.04: 5.5.9, Ubuntu 14.10: 5.5.12, latest: 5.5.21)

5. Why can't you just use the error_log() function to write the exact message you want?

In the future, set_error_handler() might be changed to be called multiple times with different custom error handlers, similar to how register_shutdown_function() and spl_autoload_register() act on multiple calls. Having a chain of error handlers appending data to $errstr makes it difficult to use error_log(), because this is a one-time operation. Also, error_log() has the ability to override the “error_log” property from php.ini, which might not be the desired behaviour. For completeness, error_log() currently has no parameters for $errno, $line and $file, so an example would look like this:

test_error_log.php

function myErrorHandler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
  switch($errno){
    case E_WARNING:           $errnoStr='Warning'; break;
    case E_NOTICE:            $errnoStr='Notice'; break;
    case E_STRICT:            $errnoStr='Strict'; break;
    case E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR: $errnoStr='Recoverable Error'; break;
    case E_DEPRECATED:        $errnoStr='Deprecated'; break;
    case E_USER_ERROR:        $errnoStr='User Error'; break;
    case E_USER_WARNING:      $errnoStr='User Warning'; break;
    case E_USER_NOTICE:       $errnoStr='User Notice'; break;
    case E_USER_DEPRECATED:   $errnoStr='User Deprecated'; break;
  } 
  if (!empty($_SESSION['username'])) {
    $errstr .= ', username: '.$_SESSION['username'];
  }
  error_log('PHP '.$errnoStr.':  '.$errstr.' in '.$errfile.' on line '.$errline);
  return true;
}

set_error_handler() callback might be able to handle E_ERROR to be able to append additional information to memory_limit exhaustions (or others).

For example try to analyze and fix:

 [13-Jan-2015 09:24:37 Europe/Berlin] PHP Fatal error:  Allowed memory size of 209715200 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 262144 bytes) in /var/www/cake/libs/model/datasources/dbo_source.php on line 419

This RFC requires a 50%+1 majority, meaning the first two choices count as Yes, the third choice counts as No. Voting started on 2015-02-13 and will end on 2015-02-27.

Allow error_handler callback parameters to be passed by reference
Real name	Allow $errstr parameter to be passed by reference	Allow $errno, $errstr, $errfile, $fileno parameter to be passed by reference	No, Allow none of the parameter be a reference parameter
aharvey (aharvey)
ajf (ajf)
bishop (bishop)
dmitry (dmitry)
francois (francois)
galvao (galvao)
guilhermeblanco (guilhermeblanco)
jedibc (jedibc)
kinncj (kinncj)
klaussilveira (klaussilveira)
laruence (laruence)
lcobucci (lcobucci)
leigh (leigh)
mbeccati (mbeccati)
nikic (nikic)
rasmus (rasmus)
rdlowrey (rdlowrey)
reeze (reeze)
stas (stas)
yohgaki (yohgaki)
Final result:	3	1	16
This poll has been closed.

Currently implemented on https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/1018
PR is against master and includes the first four callback parameters to be passed by reference. The PR will be updated to correspond vote if any one of the accepted.

I've used to build on Ubuntu 14.04:

build.sh

apt-get install build-essential re2c bison
git clone -b master https://github.com/php/php-src.git
cd php-src
curl https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/1018.patch | git am
./buildconf
./configure
make
sapi/cli/php ...

• Discussion on php-internals: http://marc.info/?t=142181539200002&r=1&w=2
• Discussion on Github: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/1018

None so far.

• v0.2 - updated open issues (thbley)
• v0.1 - Initial draft (thbley)