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Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2021 09:27:05 +0100
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Subject: Adding a way to disable the stat cache
From: kevin@ie.suberic.net (Kevin Lyda)

PHP has a stat cache which is... unfortunate. As noted in this bug from
2004[0] it causes a number of issues for PHP users and is irrelevant
in modern operating systems. Heck, it's not even useful in OS's people
might consider ancient at this point.

I have a PR[1] to fix this, but had not noticed it had been referred to
this mailing list.  I'll need fix the PR at this point as the code has
drifted, but before I do, can whatever discussion happen so that the PR
will be accepted?  The change I've made will allow people to disable the
cache so that it won't cause errors and it leaves the current broken
behaviour in place.  So there's no real change to the user experience
except they now have a tool to disable buggy behaviour.  I feel that
this is the least intrusive way to fix this bug.

In the discussion on the bug there was resistance to getting rid of the
cache so this was the solution proposed in 2007 and seemed reasonable.
The default behaviour remains but can be turned off by people who want
it off - and there are a number of people who would like it off.

Is this an acceptable solution? Would this functionality be accepted
either via my PR or another.

Kevin

[0]: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=28790
[1]: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/5894

-- 
Kevin Lyda
Galway, Ireland