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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Add pack()/unpack() support for signed integers
 with specific endianness
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:15:40 +0200
References: <CAMU7irLuV_CWR37odtuu0TL7io_bONy+5xebY82YnVb38RtEzg@mail.gmail.com>
To: PHP internals list <internals@lists.php.net>
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Message-ID: <16763451-A8D8-4519-98FF-6DD99883A00A@cschneid.com>
From: cschneid@cschneid.com (Christian Schneider)

Am 16.09.2025 um 13:45 schrieb Alexandre Daubois =
<alex.daubois+php@gmail.com>:
> I=E2=80=99d like to present this new RFC. When discussing the issue, =
we first thought that the RFC process wasn=E2=80=99t necessary. However, =
discussions on the PR showed that selecting new letters for pack and =
unpack is more challenging than we initially thought, thus creating an =
RFC for this change.
>=20
> Here is the link to the RFC: =
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/pack-unpack-endianness-signed-integers-support

Just a little side-note: unpackToSignedInt can be implemented more =
easily, e.g. like

function unpackToSignedInt($bytes)
{
        return ($uint32 =3D unpack('V', $bytes)[1]) <  2 ** 31 ? $uint32 =
: $uint32 - 2 ** 32;	# Use 'N' for big endian
}

While I undestand the wish for having all different sizes in all =
different endian-ness I don't think it is that big of an issue for =
people dealing with binary data, so I'm +-0 whether PHP really needs it.

Regards,
- Chris