Duplicate post publish action

[bmettee4]

I'll try to keep this short. Action "publish_to_publish" is being called twice when updating a published post under some circumstances. Web server registers two calls (one to index.php, one to /wp-admin/post.php). First call appears to update the content and non-meta data. Second call updates data from meta blocks.

Specifics: Any theme or plugin that adds meta data to a post forces a second call to the update process with the meta block data.

Problem: Any plugin that performs actions based on "publish_to_publish" is being called twice. In my specific instance the Better Notifications for WordPress plugin sends notifications mails doubled.

Wordpress version: 5.0.2
Theme: Customify, no plugins
Or
Theme: TwentyNineteen, and Plugin: Profile Builder

Basically anything that adds meta-data to a post object causes a second, duplicate, action.

If meta-data updates should trigger a second action, how can a plugin detect that there has been an additional call?

[SirLouen]

Reproduction Report

Description

❌ This can't validates that the issue can be reproduced.

Environment

• WordPress: 6.9-alpha-60093-src
• PHP: 8.2.29
• Server: nginx/1.29.1
• Database: mysqli (Server: 8.4.6 / Client: mysqlnd 8.2.29)
• Browser: Chrome 139.0.0.0
• OS: Windows 10/11
• Theme: Twenty Twenty-Five 1.3
• MU Plugins: None activated
• Plugins:
  • BBB Testing Dolly
  • Test Reports 1.2.0

Reproduciton instructions

1. Add the code to a plugin, in the supp artifacts. This code simply add post meta, everytime a post is updated
2. Create a new post
3. Update the post
4. 👌 Only one call is done to publish_to_publish

Actual Results

1. ❌ Error condition is not occurring.

Additional Notes

• I'm going to close this for two reasons:

1. The first reason is that its not reproducible
2. The second, is that even if there are double calls to hooks, they can be easily controlled either with a transient, temporary meta, or with a static variable if it's a callback, just to name some. There are many ways to handle this.

Supplemental Artifacts

add_action( 'post_updated', 'bb_testing_add_update_meta', 10, 1 );
function bb_testing_add_update_meta( $post_ID ) {
	if ( wp_is_post_autosave( $post_ID ) || wp_is_post_revision( $post_ID ) ) {
		return;
	}
	$timestamp = current_time( 'mysql' );
	add_post_meta( $post_ID, '_bb_testing_last_' . $timestamp, $timestamp );
}