PHP 4.2.1 Release Announcement

[ Version Française ] 

Bugfix release

This bug fix release solves a few bugs found in PHP 4.2.0. PHP 4.2.1 includes the following fixes:

• Fix for the MySQL extension not be able to connect to a MySQL server.
• Fix for a crash in the COM extension when using an outproc server.
• Fix for SID logic in the session extension.
• Fixes for the mbstring extension, including SJIS directory name handling and mb_output_buffer().
• Fix for a bug in socket_select() that could cause unexpected behavior when using a statement like $w = $e = array($sock);
• Almost full DOM compliance for the domxml extension, and fixes for several functions.
• Safe_mode checks for show_source(), parse_ini_file() and rmdir().

Compatibility

PHP 4.2.1 also has improved (but still experimental) support for Apache version 2. We do not recommend that you use this in a production environment, but feel free to test it and report bugs to the bug system.

External variables

We would also like to attend you on a big change in PHP 4.2.0 concerning variable handling. External variables (from the environment, the HTTP request, cookies or the web server) are no longer registered in the global scope by default. The preferred method of accessing these external variables is by using the new Superglobal arrays, introduced in PHP 4.1.0. More information about this change:

• PHP Manual: Predefined variables
• The PHP 4.1.0 release announcement
• Thomas Oertli's article on secure programming in PHP