[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #38162: Remove paged.php from the theme template hierarchy

[WordPress Trac]

#38162: Remove paged.php from the theme template hierarchy
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 Reporter:  johnbillion  |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  4.7
Component:  Themes       |    Version:
 Severity:  normal       |   Keywords:  needs-patch 2nd-opinion
  Focuses:  template     |
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 The theme template hierarchy has support for a seldom-used template file
 called `paged.php`. This is intended as a template for paged archives but
 its implementation is almost useless, because it's the lowest priority
 template in the hierarchy before falling back to index.php. Here's the
 template hierarchy for a paged category archive:

 1. `category-uncategorized.php`
 2. `category-1.php`
 3. `category.php`
 4. `archive.php`
 5. `paged.php`
 6. `index.php`

 If any other template file -- such as `category.php` or `archive.php` --
 is in place, this will be chosen before `paged.php`. A theme with a
 `paged.php` template but without any kind of archive template is not a
 useful theme.

 Let's remove `paged.php` from the hierarchy for simplicity.

 A scan of the 4,000+ themes in the w.org theme directory reports not one
 single theme using a `paged.php` template. (Three themes are using a
 placeholder `paged.php` template in a subdirectory as part of a theme
 framework that uses a hierarchy identical to core.)

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38162>
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