[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #51043: PHP: bump minimum version requirements

[WordPress Trac]

#51043: PHP: bump minimum version requirements
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 Reporter:  jrf              |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  task (blessed)   |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  high             |   Milestone:
Component:  General          |     Version:
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:  maybelater
 Keywords:  has-patch early  |     Focuses:
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Comment (by SergeyBiryukov):

 As noted in the ticket description, bumping the required version to PHP
 7.1 is necessary for PHPUnit 8.x support (#46149), which is instrumental
 in PHP 8 support, which in turn, being released on November 26, 2020, is
 also one of the focuses for WordPress 5.6.

 I also don't think we need to look at the PHP usage for *all* WP versions
 here, as those on WP <5.2 are unlikely to update either WP or PHP. I
 believe we only looked at WP 4.9 to 5.1 when bumping the requirement in WP
 5.2, and I think we should do the same here.

 If we look at the recent WP versions (5.2 to 5.5), 78.52% of those are
 already on PHP 7.1 or later (as opposed to 66% for all WP versions). That
 means only 21.48% of those are on PHP 5.6 or 7.0. That is still high, but
 could be brought down to a more acceptable number by the end of year with
 some brainstorming and coordinated efforts.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51043#comment:9>
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