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Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2025 12:21:35 +0200
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Subject: [PHP-DEV] Use header_handler in CLI SAPI
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From: joanhey@kumbiaphp.com (Joan Miquel Abrines)

Hi,
I created a issue https://github.com/php/php-src/issues/12304 and later
the PR https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/16145 about the headers in CLI=
.
But both remains stalled, so I'll present it here.

The CLI SAPI don't send headers, and for that it's OK that
the=C2=A0sapi=5Fcli=5Fsend=5Fheaders()=C2=A0do nothing.
But we can't use the normal headers, cookies, session, ... functions
from CLI, that later we can take with the headers=5Flist().

=46rom PHP 8.0 we can disable the functions, and override them. But later=

we need an spiral of changes: setcookie, session, ....
This problem is fixed with change only 1 line in the cli=5Fsapi=5Fmodule
from php-src:
  sapi=5Fcli=5Fheader=5Fhandler,   /  header handler  /
for =20
  NULL, / header handler /

So the CLI will use the fallback core header=5Fhandler and all the
functions will work with CLI, that now do nothing. And still the CLI
will never sent the headers.
This change don't break backward compatibility, as now all these
functions do nothing in CLI.
And I think that this change don't need an R=46C.

In my project https://github.com/joanhey/AdapterMan we override them, to
demonstrate that is possible, and run with normal php files and framework=
s.
But we need to waste a lot of time and effort to maintain it, when with
1 line changed in php-src it's ready.

This change it is not only for Adapterman, but to simplify the creation
of new CLI frameworks than improve the ecosystem.
Another benefit of this change is that we can test headers from CLI, now
we can't do it with phpunit, pest, ...

The PR come with tests, and also we run a compiled php with Adapterman
without problems.

Next Steps

Open more functions to CLI SAPI, like populate array from request data
stream, to simplify the creation of CLI frameworks.

Adapterman have demonstrated than CLI frameworks can be faster than C
frameworks like Swoole, =46rankenphp, ... but we need to simplify the cre=
ation.

But this need an R=46C.

Sincerely,
Joan Miquel Abrines