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Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 09:20:32 +0100
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Reply-To: "Anatol Belski" <ab@php.net>
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Subject: 64 bit platform improvements
From: ab@php.net ("Anatol Belski")

Hi,

I'm writing in the first place to give an update on the patch status. Just
to remind - it's a matter of implementing size_t for string sizes and
getting rid of 'long' in favour of platform dependent 64 bit integer. The
patch is now close to finish the first big porting step. ZE and other very
core parts are revamped in multiple circles and do now work well in the
patch. Also the most important and wide used core extensions and SAPIs are
ported. The progress page is reachable under
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/string-size_t/progress , the RFC draft is linked
from there. The work is of course still in progress.

Regarding to my observations, there are some half dead or unsupported
SAPIs and extensions currently in the core. Just to name some for SAPIs -
phttpd, aolserver.

Another observation is - there are 64 bit issues regarding dependency
libraries. Though that was an open secret right at the start, many of
those regarding 64 vs 32 bit integers do already persist in the 64 bit
Linux/Unix PHP builds.

Some steps are necessary to reach the next stage

- strong code reviews
- more testing
- helping hands on porting

In the light of the above, I would sincerely invite the community to
participate on reviews, testing and further fixes. From the side of core
devs, it would rock to have fixes for SAPIs and extensions rarely
supported, especially the sapi/fpm wasn't ported yet. As well the ported
stuff possibly (or better to say surely) has something overseen. Any
improvement ideas are appreciated of course.

On the part of people without C knowledge - testing with some real PHP
apps would be already a great help. The usage is anyway interesting for
needs like large strings/uploads, LFS, etc. Particular on Windows 64 bit
integers/array indexes and big memory limit are enjoyable. Even running
just the PHPTs on your machine were great. To compile yourself, no
additional configure options are needed anymore. Even testing just one
extension would help to chase down possible side effects and bugs. Not to
forget, that the 32 bit builds of that branch should be tested, too.

Thanks

Anatol