From: al dot the dot x at gmail dot com
Operating system: ANY
PHP version: Irrelevant
PHP Bug Type: Documentation problem
Bug description: Serialize / Unserialize Behavior with Objects including
References
Description:
------------
As discussed in several bug reports and in the
additional comments in the PHP Documentation site
(eventually, with some reading / searching), the
functions serialize() and unserialize() do not restore
references to other objects in PHP 4. As that this
behavior is unexpected _and_ intrinsic to the use of
session data in PHP, please consider including a caveat
or clarification in the documentation XML for the
affected functions, the "Classes and Objects" section,
and the "Session-Handling Functions" section.
Certainly, there's a workaround with __sleep() and
__wakeup(), but this really needs to be addressed in the
primary documentation in all these places, since the
thread regarding that behavior is now buried among
others and only appears on the description of
serialize().
I also understand that this has been fixed as of PHP 5,
but that's not a very helpful explanation, Most hosting
providers currently run PHP 4.3.x or 4.4.x and place low
priority on upgrading until the next major Apache
version is released (maybe not even then, the slackers).
Reproduce code:
---------------
// Consider:
class dataObject {
var $data = NULL;
var $pointer = NULL;
function dataObject ($newData = false) {
if ($newData !== false) $this->data = $newData;
} // END constructor
function setPointer (&$newPtr) {
return ($this->pointer =& $newPtr);
} // END setPointer
} // END class dataObject
$A = new base('This is A');
$B = new base('This is B');
$A->setPointer(&$B);
$C = serialize($A);
// Now check the original for reference...
$B->data = "Still B, but different";
echo $A->pointer->data; // Funky syntax, I know...
// Output as expected: "Still B, but different"
// But do the same on the serialized version...
unset($A);
$A = unserialize($C);
$B->data = "Where's B now?";
echo $A->pointer->data;
// Output is old "This is B"... Not cool.
// Reference is not preserved.
--
Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=35579&edit=1
--
Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 4.4):
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=trysnapshot44
Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 5.1):
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=trysnapshot51
Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 6.0):
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=trysnapshot60
Fixed in CVS: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=fixedcvs
Fixed in release:
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=alreadyfixed
Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=needtrace
Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=needscript
Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=oldversion
Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=support
Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=notwrong
Not enough info:
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=notenoughinfo
Submitted twice:
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=submittedtwice
register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=globals
PHP 3 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=php3
Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=dst
IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=isapi
Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=gnused
Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=float
No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=nozend
MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=35579&r=mysqlcfg
