[RndTbl] PHP undefined vars / array indices

[Trevor Cordes]

On 2022-01-19 Gilbert E. Detillieux wrote:
> I'd hold off on making/maintaining your own fork until such a time
> the PHP brain-trust actually raises things from a warning to an
> error.  In the meantime, if you're logging using rsyslog, it would be
> fairly easy to add a one-line filter rule to eliminate the
> needlessly-noisy warning messages.  No more full logs, and no more
> actual serious warnings getting lost like a needle in the haystack!

There's an inherent problem in the FLOSS / dev process, especially
regarding PHP, and that is they are deciding things 2-3 years before
they materialize in most distros; maybe even longer for enterprise
production stacks.  That means very few potential stakeholders
(including everyday PHP programmers) will realize/notice disastrous
decisions until it is far too late to take part in the discussion.

It really leaves the 60-ish PHP dev/voters free rein with no timely
pushback.  While I'm moaning about a warning, they are raring to go
full-error, I'm sure.  It's actually quite shocking that this
poor-path-choices scenario crops up so rarely!  I guess it's a
testament to the good governance / benevolent dictatorship of most
projects most of the time.

We're kind of lucky in this case because I noticed these things a while
back reading PHP 8.x changelogs, and have been writing about the
craziness in the newsletter for a couple of years.  (However, I didn't
believe some of the more insane plans.)  How many would know about this
if not for MUUG (assuming it's someone who remotely cares)?  Although,
not like being aware has helped at all.  Like Adam said, it's like
systemd, it shows up and is shoved down your throat, leaving many
people with a bad taste.

As for your log-filtering idea: it may be the easiest way out for now.
However, PHP by default currently logs straight to file.  I'm sure
there's a syslog option I'll have to explore.  I guess it'll add some
overhead, but it shouldn't be too much.  I didn't know (r)syslog had a
filtering option beyond the level-filtering!  So does it allow string
search or regex or something?  Have you used this in the past?  A quick
example?

Thanks for the input!

P.S. Maybe I'll take the filtered out UV/UAI warnings in syslog and do
| mail -s 'thanks for nothing' 36phpdevsvotingyes at php.net
Hahaha, just kidding!