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To: "internals" <internals@lists.php.net>
Cc: "Elizabeth Smith" <emsmith@elizabethmariesmith.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:34:15 -0000
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Subject: RFC Making compiler info accessible
From: steph@zend.com ("Steph Fox")

Hi all,

This is just a suggestion at this stage, I'd like to test the waters with it 
before writing a patch.

Apropos the VS discussion, I was thinking about suffixing the PHP version 
number in these 'beta builds', to help with the ensuing QA logistics, and 
then it struck me that it might be useful for _everybody_ to have compiler 
info (make/version) as part of the string returned from php -v, probably 
alongside the build date. We could then sanely ask for that information as 
part of PHP bug reports.

The MS compiler version is transparently available to the source code, so it 
wouldn't be difficult to make the information available in the resulting PHP 
binary. (It's also available to our MS build system[*].) I know rather less 
about the situation with compilers on other platforms though...?

Comments? Particularly, does anyone actually use php -v output in their 
scripting in a way that would make this a bad idea all round?

- Steph

[*] The build system currently appears to be using that info for BC 
workarounds, among other things. Elizabeth, if you're reading this please be 
aware that it needs a little investigation.