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Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:59:38 +0200
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Subject: [PHP-DEV] [RFC][Discussion] Add #[NoSerialize] attribute for excluding properties or classes from serialization
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From: lnkvisitor.ts@gmail.com (Dmytro Kulyk)

Hello internals,

I=E2=80=99d like to open a discussion about a new proposal introducing the
#[NoSerialize] attribute, which allows developers to explicitly
exclude properties =E2=80=94 or even entire classes =E2=80=94 from native P=
HP
serialization.

RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/no_serialize_attribute
Implementation: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/20074

The primary goal of my series of proposals is to gradually reduce the
responsibilities of __sleep(), which today is used both to filter
which properties should be serialized, and to perform pre-serialization
logic.

Before proposing significant behavioral changes to __sleep(), we first
need to introduce clear, attribute-based alternatives for its common
use cases.

This RFC represents one of these preparatory steps.

It introduces an explicit, engine-level mechanism (#[NoSerialize]) to
declare which properties or classes should be skipped during
serialization =E2=80=94 without requiring __sleep() to handle that
responsibility.

Please also consider the related RFCs (to be discussed separately):
- https://wiki.php.net/rfc/sleep_without_return_array
- https://wiki.php.net/rfc/not_serializable_attribute

Together, these proposals aim to clarify and simplify PHP=E2=80=99s object
serialization model by moving away from overloaded magic methods
toward more explicit, declarative mechanisms.

Best regards,
Dmytro Kulyk