Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64450&edit=1
ID: 64450 Comment by: a...@php.net Reported by: stefano dot baccianella at gmail dot com Summary: mt_rand causes overflow within certain max value Status: Wont fix Type: Bug Package: *General Issues Operating System: Windows 7 64bit PHP Version: 5.4.13 Assigned To: ab Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Linux or BSD 64 bit i mean. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-03-26 19:44:39] a...@php.net Well, Windows stands completely alongside. long on both x86 and x64 Windows is 32 bit, so no matter which PHP build is used. The code we deal with here only works correct on system having sizeof(long) >= sizeof(double), that are for instance 64 bit Linux or BSD. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-03-26 08:11:43] stefano dot baccianella at gmail dot com Yeah, true. I was misled by the fact that my system is 64bit but PHP for windows is compiled on 32bit. I think that an RFC for 5.6 should be enough. Thank you ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-03-25 23:22:53] a...@php.net I'm not sure something like that would be accepted as the valid domain is clearly documented and such a change is still a BC breach. What might work is a change request including an RFC for 5.6, otherwise a PECL ext. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-03-25 20:47:13] stefano dot baccianella at gmail dot com Ok, now it's clear. Maybe as a minor fix I can suggest to check if MAX is greater than PHP_INT_MAX and return a value instead of an error (FALSE value?) or an error with an explanation, in both cases it's better than an overflow. Thank you very much for your time ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-03-25 20:40:52] a...@php.net Please consider the following snippet while(true) { $max = pow(10, 13); // 10000000000000 $rand = mt_rand(0, $max); if ($rand > PHP_INT_MAX) { break; } } It *seems* to work, but you'll never reach the break condition. On some systems that might be PHP_INT_MAX*2, not sure. Thus, the whole range between pow(10, 13) and PHP_INT_MAX will never be returned. Additionally please be aware - we deal with a pseudo randomness here, it works as expected in 32 bit range only with 32 bit long. The implementation seems to run unexpected overflows on some places like pow(10, 12) you've reported, but it just physically won't work with floats. Thanks for reporting. A better solution is definitely needed for this functionality, not just a bug fix. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64450 -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64450&edit=1