[PR #1577] EntityManager#merge() and EntityManager#detach() removal #9633

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admin · 2026-01-22T16:04:56+01:00

admin commented

2026-01-22 16:04:56 +01:00

Original Pull Request: https://github.com/doctrine/orm/pull/1577

State: closed
Merged: Yes

This PR simply attempts to get rid of EntityManager#merge() and EntityManager#detach() operations.

While merge and detach can be useful in contexts where entities are being serialized:

serializing entities is something we suggest NOT doing
the semantics really don't fit PHP
the merge operations are quite aggressive and cause a lot of issues
cascade merges not configured correctly = hell
EntityManager#clear() is a much better API for long-running and multi-threaded processes
the initial use-case around EntityManager#merge() was to merge data without further queries (when avoidable): the Second Level Cache now solves that problem in a more elegant way.

TODO:

update documentation
remove merge/detach mapping information
~~~remove ObjectManager#detach() and ObjectManager#merge()~~~ (or provide empty implementation that throws, for now)

**Original Pull Request:** https://github.com/doctrine/orm/pull/1577 **State:** closed **Merged:** Yes --- This PR simply attempts to get rid of `EntityManager#merge()` and `EntityManager#detach()` operations. While `merge` and `detach` can be useful in contexts where entities are being serialized: - serializing entities is something we suggest NOT doing - the semantics really don't fit PHP - the merge operations are quite aggressive and cause a lot of issues - cascade merges not configured correctly = hell - `EntityManager#clear()` is a much better API for long-running and multi-threaded processes - the initial use-case around `EntityManager#merge()` was to merge data without further queries (when avoidable): the Second Level Cache now solves that problem in a more elegant way. TODO: * [x] update documentation * [x] remove merge/detach mapping information * [x] ~~~remove `ObjectManager#detach()` and `ObjectManager#merge()`~~~ (or provide empty implementation that throws, for now)

admin added the pull-request label 2026-01-22 16:04:56 +01:00

admin closed this issue

2026-01-22 16:04:56 +01:00

admin referenced this issue

2026-01-22 16:11:50 +01:00

[PR #9633] Leverage generic persistence event classes #11757

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