[php-maint] Uploading 5.4 RC to unstable (Was: Upcoming transition of php5 to 5.4)

[Thomas Goirand]

On 02/01/2012 06:11 PM, Ondřej Surý wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I was thinking that it could be a good idea (after current version migrates
> to testing) to upload 5.4RCx to unstable to begin work on transition as soon
> as possible. RC releases should have stable API(?), so application wise
> there's no problem. I'll fill a release critical bug in our BTS, so
> the 5.4 version
> don't migrate to testing and close it with stable 5.4.0 release.
> 
> Ccing PHP internals to let them know and ask if it is a good idea (the 5.4RC
> will be probably used by more people when uploaded to Debian unstable, i.e.
> it means more testing, but also more bugreports).
> 
> O.

I support this.

Removal of some legacy features, like these functions:
session_is_registered(), session_register() and session_unregister(), or
removal of .ini stuff like register_globals and register_long_arrays
WILL break applications.

The sooner we have PHP 5.4 in SID, the sooner people will realize
issues, and start fixing.

Anyways, I think we should write few words in -devel@, including
mentioning the above feature removal (or maybe simply showing the URL:
http://www.php.net/releases/NEWS_5_4_0_alpha1.txt, but I don't think
that's enough, insisting on session_register() removal for example,
which must be still widely used, is crucial).

Also, I'd like to know. In PHP 5.3, we had few deprecated functions
(ereg / eregi pops to mind, but also return new as reference). Are these
now totally removed from PHP 5.4, or do they still show with deprecation
warnings?

Thoughts?

Thomas