SHORTINIT and date_i18n: Call to undefined function _x()

[djzone]

When SHORTINIT is used together with date_i18n() wp-includes/l10n.php is not loaded, and results the following error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function _x() in /wp-includes
/functions.php on line 178

The following code can be used to reproduce the error:

<?php
define('SHORTINIT', true);
require_once('./wp-load.php');
$now = date_i18n('Y-m-d H:i:s');

This bug appeared in 4.4, with 4.3.1 it worked fine.

I've tried to investigate what happend since 4.3.1 that causes this change, I've find out that it's neither wp-settings.php nor wp-load.php.

I believe a wp_load_translations_early() call somewhere has been moved since 4.3.1, but I could not find that in revision history :(

[SergeyBiryukov]

Introduced in [35517].

SHORTINIT bails earlier than l10n.php is loaded: tags/4.0/src/wp-settings.php#L101​.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 35878:

I18N: In wp_maybe_decline_date(), bail early if translation functions are not available, e.g. in SHORTINIT mode.

Fixes #34967 for trunk.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 35879:

Revert [35878].

See #34967.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 35880:

I18N: In wp_maybe_decline_date(), bail early if translation functions are not available, e.g. in SHORTINIT mode.

Fixes #34967 for trunk.

[dd32]

In 36063:

I18N: In wp_maybe_decline_date(), bail early if translation functions are not available, e.g. in SHORTINIT mode.

Merges [35880] to the 4.4 branch.
Props SergeyBiryukov.
Fixes #34967.