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Date: Tue, 14 May 2024 20:47:53 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Stricter requirements for libxml
To: Derick Rethans <derick@php.net>
Cc: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
References: <42857f2f-fef7-447f-b7a8-ef92180e4768@gmail.com>
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From: dossche.niels@gmail.com (Niels Dossche)

On 14/05/2024 11:36, Derick Rethans wrote:
> On Fri, 10 May 2024, Niels Dossche wrote:
> 
>> Hi internals
>>
>> Libxml is used as the underlying library for many PHP extensions.
>> Interestingly, libxml can be built with supports for various features disabled.
>> E.g. you can build libxml without XPath, Schemas, HTML, ... support.
>> In that case, these features are unavailable in PHP. E.g. some classes may not be defined or functions may emit a warning instead of performing an action.
>>
>> I'm thinking of proposing an RFC that puts stricter requirements on libxml at build time.
>> That would make such features a requirement during PHP's build process.
>> This will simplify maintenance and will also make sure that users can rely on these functionalities to always be available.
>>
>> Please let me know what you think.
> 
> That seems sensible. Did you find any Linux distribution that actively 
> disables these features, or is this a "just in case" kind of change?
> 
> cheers,
> Derick

I am not aware of a distro that disables these features. This is a "just in case" thing.
The fact that I didn't find one is also a motivation to make this change: why should we make the code more complicated to support a configuration that doesn't seem to be used? :)

Kind regards
Niels