PHP 8.4: new features and release date
Introduction
PHP is an open-source project. Knowing what’s going on for PHP 8.4 only takes a minute of research. For instance, this page lists all the accepted RFCs for different versions of PHP, including PHP 8.4.
When will PHP 8.4 be released?
PHP 8.4 will be released on November 21, 2024, according to the preparation tasks list. It will be tested through three alpha releases, three betas, and six release candidates.
| Date | Release of PHP 8.4 |
|---|---|
| June 6, 2024 | Alpha 1 |
| June 20, 2024 | Alpha 2 |
| July 4, 2024 | Alpha 3 |
| July 16, 2024 | Feature freeze |
| July 18, 2024 | Beta 1 |
| August 1, 2024 | Beta 2 |
| August 15, 2024 | Beta 3 |
| August 29, 2024 | RC 1 |
| September 12, 2024 | RC 2 |
| September 26, 2024 | RC 3 |
| October 10, 2024 | RC 4 |
| October 24, 2024 | RC 5 |
| November 7, 2024 | RC 6 |
| November 21, 2024 | GA |
Install and test PHP 8.4 on macOS
- Install the Homebrew package manager if it’s not done already.
- Run
brew updateto make sure Homebrew and the formulae are up to date. - Add a new tap (basically a GitHub repository) for PHP 8.4’s formula:
brew tap shivammathur/php. - Install the pre-compiled binary for PHP 8.4 (also called “a bottle” in Homebrew’s context). This will make the install so much faster.
brew install php@8.4. - Link it to make sure that the
phpalias targets the right binary:brew link --overwrite --force php@8.4.
If you want to learn more about how to install PHP on your Mac, I wrote something for you: PHP for Mac: get started fast using Laravel Valet
What’s new in PHP 8.4
PHP 8.4’s DOM extension now supports HTML5
PHP 8.4’s DOM extension just got a big upgrade with support for HTML5 parsing and serialization. This means no more headaches when dealing with HTML5 specific tags or embedding HTML in your JavaScript.
Just use the new DOM\HTMLDocument class and your HTML5 content will be handled correctly, keeping up with the modern web standards.
Here’s how you create an HTML document from a string:
use DOM\HTMLDocument; $htmlDocument = HTMLDocument::createFromString('<!DOCTYPE html><html><body>Hello, HTML5!</body></html>');
Or from a file:
use DOM\HTMLDocument; $htmlDocument = HTMLDocument::createFromFile('path/to/your/file.html');
Learn more: PHP RFC: DOM HTML5 parsing and serialization
PHP 8.4 comes with an increased bcrypt cost by default
In PHP 8.4, the default cost of bcrypt has been increased to 12. What does that even mean?
Bcrypt is the password hashing function that PHP uses. It acts as a shield against hackers who would want to crack passwords.
The strength of this shield can be adjusted. The higher the setting or the “cost”, the stronger the shield because bcrypt is an adaptive function: “over time, the iteration count can be increased to make it slower, so it remains resistant to brute-force search attacks even with increasing computation power.”
And why is it such a big deal? Because increasing the cost of bcrypt makes password hashing a few milliseconds slower.
Learn more: PHP RFC: Increasing the default BCrypt cost
PHP 8.4 can parse large XML documents more reliably
This change resolved a potential issue in the ext/xml PHP extension involving its handling of large XML document parsing.
Conflicting modifications in libxml2 version 2.7.0 unintentionally disrupted large document parsing when using xml_parse() and xml_parse_into_struct() functions, resulting in a parsing error.
PHP 8.4 introduced a new parser option to properly handle these large XML documents and prevent the parsing error, making it possible for developers to parse large XML documents effectively, without needing complex workarounds.
Learn more: PHP RFC: XML_OPTION_PARSE_HUGE
New multibyte trimming functions in PHP 8.4
PHP 8.4’s mbstring extension now includes three new functions: mb_trim(), mb_ltrim(), and mb_rtrim(). This addition makes it easier to trim strings with multibyte characters, improving upon the previous workaround of using regex with preg_replace().
The new functions handle whitespace and other characters in a multibyte safe way. The default behavior removes a predefined set of characters which includes various types of space characters, including some that are not typically covered by \s in regular expressions.
Here are the functions in PHP 8.4 and their default behaviors:
-
mb_trim($string, $characters): Trims characters from both ends of a string. -
mb_ltrim($string, $characters): Trims characters from the beginning (left side) of a string. -
mb_rtrim($string, $characters): Trims characters from the end (right side) of a string.
By default, $characters includes a variety of whitespace characters, but not all possible Unicode characters due to storage and compatibility concerns.
Learn more: PHP RFC: Multibyte for trim function mb_trim, mb_ltrim and mb_rtrim
