[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #42858: Minimum PHP version requirement for upgrading to WordPress 5.0

[WordPress Trac]

#42858: Minimum PHP version requirement for upgrading to WordPress 5.0
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 Reporter:  ottok            |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement      |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Upgrade/Install  |    Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal           |   Keywords:
  Focuses:                   |
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 The WordPress installer (and upgrader) should check that the system has at
 least '''PHP 5.3''' available, and refuse to install/upgrade to WordPress
 5.0 if the PHP version is older than 5.3.

 Such a hard requirement would be [https://semver.org semantically correct]
 in conjunction of the release of WordPress 5.0.

 This change would affect the current [https://wordpress.org/about/stats/
 3.7 % of users still on PHP 5.2].

 Users running PHP 5.2 or older would be left to using WordPress 4.9.x
 branch, which is likely to be maintained for a long time and thus still a
 valid WordPress version to use for a long time.

 Developers of core would be allowed to use features available since PHP
 5.3 from WP 5.0 onwards.

 We suggest specifically PHP 5.3 since that version is still supported and
 security patched by a major Linux vendor (in
 CentOS/[https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redhat RedHat 6]
 series). Thus PHP 5.3 can still be a perfectly valid option to somebody.
 However, anybody running PHP 5.2 or older is most likely running an
 outdated Linux distribution that can have major security issues all over
 in PHP, Apache/Nginx, MySQL etc on that machine, and use of such machines
 should be strongly discouraged.

 When releasing WordPress 6.0 we can maybe bump the requirement to PHP 7.0
 depending on what the major Linux distributions are still supporting at
 that time. Anyway, the same code that is created now can be reused later
 on.

 If the '''developers working on Gutenberg''' say they have or intend make
 braking changes that are incompatible with old WordPress environments, we
 could even consider having PHP 7.0 as the minimum requirement for
 WordPress 5.0 onwards, and '''thus we would indirectly protect old
 WordPress environments from breaking''', as they would not upgrade to the
 5.x releases because of this restriction, but remain using 4.9.x. This
 would nicely align with user and developer expectations related to a major
 release like 5.0 with Gutenberg.

 The topic of WordPress PHP requirements has been discussed in many issues
 already. This new issue was made with the purpose of being very short,
 specific and actionable, and it can be either dismissed or closed with a
 single code commit in core. Most importand related issues are #33381 and
 #41191. Please don't close this issue as a duplicate. Only close this
 issue with a yes or no decision.

 We intend to champion this idea in next
 [https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/core-php/ WP PHP meeting].

 If this issue is blessed, we are willing to create the code that
 implements it in WP core.

 Issue filed by @drivingralle and @ottok on contributor day in WC Athens
 2017.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/42858>
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