PHP 8.2: INI Parsing warnings

Version8.2

TypeChange

In PHP 8.2, PHP adds a new function named ini_parse_quantity() that parses a string value containing a data size such as 2M, 5G, 1G into an integer containing the size, with M, G, and K multipliers resolved.

As part of this change, PHP 8.2 also emits warnings when it encounters ill-formatted INI values on INI settings that expect an integer value. This behavior is now consistent and identical to setting INI values in .ini files, passing INI values to PHP's CLI (php -d setting=value), ini_set function, and other means of configuration provided server APIs.

See the ini_parse_quantity: Warnings section for a detailed list of error conditions. Most notably, PHP does not support common data size suffixes such as MB, and only supports (case independent) K, M, and G suffixes.

Note that the parsed integers value for all of the INI settings remain the same; the difference is that since PHP 8.2, PHP emits a warning that was previously silently ignored.

Examples of INI values that trigger the warnings

The following are some of the examples that might trigger a warning in PHP 8.2. The interpreted value remains unchanged in PHP 8.2, and should not cause any other functional changes other than the additional warning.

# custom php.ini file
upload_max_filesize = 2GB

Warning: Invalid "upload_max_filesize" setting. Invalid quantity "2GB": unknown multiplier "B", interpreting as "2" for backwards compatibility

# Running PHP script
php -d post_max_size=999999999999G

Warning: Invalid "post_max_size" setting. Invalid quantity "999999999999G": value is out of range, using overflow result for backwards compatibility

ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', 'MB50');

Warning:  Invalid "session.gc_maxlifetime" setting. Invalid quantity "MB50": no valid leading digits, interpreting as "0" for backwards compatibility

Correcting the INI values

An INI value correctly parsed in PHP 8.2 without warnings should yield identical values in all PHP versions including older PHP versions. ini_parse_quantity: Warnings section lists all possible warning patterns, but the following is a list of examples that show examples of fixes.

# custom php.ini file
- upload_max_filesize = 2GB
+ upload_max_filesize = 2G

# Running PHP script
- php -d post_max_size=999999999999G
+ php -d post_max_size=9G # Change value to a value that does not overflow

- ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', 'MB50');
+ ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', '50M');

Affected PHP INI Directives

The following is a list of INI directives affected within PHP core and extensions. Third party extensions, such as Xdebug also declare INI settings, and they are affected by this change as well.

bcmath.scale
com.code_page
default_socket_timeout
fiber.stack_size
hard_timeout
intl.error_level
ldap.max_links
max_input_nesting_level
max_input_vars
mbstring.regex_retry_limit
mbstring.regex_stack_limit
mysqli.allow_local_infile
mysqli.allow_persistent
mysqli.default_port
mysqli.max_links
mysqli.max_persistent
mysqli.reconnect
mysqli.rollback_on_cached_plink
mysqlnd.log_mask
mysqlnd.mempool_default_size
mysqlnd.net_read_buffer_size
mysqlnd.net_read_timeout
oci8.default_prefetch
oci8.max_persistent
oci8.persistent_timeout
oci8.ping_interval
oci8.prefetch_lob_size
oci8.privileged_connect
oci8.statement_cache_size
odbc.allow_persistent
odbc.check_persistent
odbc.defaultbinmode
odbc.default_cursortype
odbc.defaultlrl
odbc.max_links
odbc.max_persistent
opcache.consistency_checks
opcache.file_update_protection
opcache.force_restart_timeout
opcache.interned_strings_buffer
opcache.jit_bisect_limit
opcache.jit_blacklist_root_trace
opcache.jit_blacklist_side_trace
opcache.jit_debug
opcache.jit_hot_func
opcache.jit_hot_loop
opcache.jit_hot_return
opcache.jit_hot_side_exit
opcache.jit_max_exit_counters
opcache.jit_max_loop_unrolls
opcache.jit_max_polymorphic_calls
opcache.jit_max_recursive_calls
opcache.jit_max_recursive_returns
opcache.jit_max_root_traces
opcache.jit_max_side_traces
opcache.log_verbosity_level
opcache.max_file_size
opcache.opt_debug_level
opcache.optimization_level
opcache.revalidate_freq
output_buffering
pcre.backtrack_limit
pcre.recursion_limit
pgsql.max_links
pgsql.max_persistent
post_max_size
realpath_cache_size
realpath_cache_ttl
session.cache_expire
session.cookie_lifetime
session.gc_divisor
session.gc_maxlifetime
session.gc_probability
soap.wsdl_cache_limit
soap.wsdl_cache_ttl
unserialize_max_depth
upload_max_filesize
user_ini.cache_ttl
xmlrpc_error_number
zend.assertions
zlib.output_compression_level

INI settings declared by most common third-party extensions:

Xdebug

xdebug.connect_timeout_ms
xdebug.force_display_errors
xdebug.force_error_reporting
xdebug.halt_level
xdebug.log_level
xdebug.max_nesting_level
xdebug.max_stack_frames
xdebug.profiler_append
xdebug.show_error_trace
xdebug.show_exception_trace
xdebug.show_local_vars
xdebug.trace_format
xdebug.trace_options
xdebug.var_display_max_children
xdebug.var_display_max_data
xdebug.var_display_max_depth

Pcov

pcov.initial.memory
pcov.initial.files

APCu

apc.shm_segments
apc.shm_size
apc.entries_hint
apc.ttl
apc.gc_ttl
apc.slam_defense
apc.use_request_time
apc.coredump_unmap

Backwards Compatibility Impact

This change does not alter the final values PHP parses, so this change should not introduce any difference in the functionality. The additional warnings are helpful, as they try to warn about some of the most common patterns that PHP did not parse as commonly expected, but did so silently.

It is straight-forward to fix the INI values in a cross-version compatible way, as shown in the examples.

The list of affected INI directives is non-exhaustive; there can be other INI directives added by third party PHP extensions that trigger the same warning.

Related Changes

New ini_parse_quantity function

Implementation