Bump PHP version requirements

[jorbin]

Follow up to [17523] and [17562] and [44950]

[jorbin]

Want to bump this so that people can't accidentally upgrade to a version they can't use.

@dd32 @pento - Either of you have insights into the stats for the specific minor of 5.6 we want to use?

[dd32]

Replying to jorbin:

Either of you have insights into the stats for the specific minor of 5.6 we want to use?

I pulled the stats for WP 5.x usage of PHP 5.6.x, summarised here: ​https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QtChQBycXJa5helEiDCWIH6EMFR5wZUr9NdfcJQ5djQ/edit#gid=0

Basically, 54% use the latest 5.6.40, 95% are 5.6.30 and above, and 99% are 5.6.20 and above (I don't like how round these numbers are.. :) )

Most of the ​PHP 5.6 fixes after 5.6.25 seem to be security-related, and that's the point I stopped looking into it.

[jorbin]

Thanks Dion!

Barring objections or arguments, I’m fine with a 95% solution and will commit that.

[jorbin]

In 44982:

PHP: Bump minimum version

95% of 5.6 sites are on 5.6.30 or higher, hence this specific minimum version.

Fixes #46594.

[jorbin]

#46624 was marked as a duplicate.

[jorbin]

in #46624, @luciano-croce proposed setting the minimum as 5.6.40. Unfortunately, I think that's going in the wrong direction. As the stats point out, only 54% of 5.6.x sites are on that, so we would be eliminating a lot more sites than intended from upgrading to WordPress 5.2 by doing so. ~20% of users are already going to be left behind.

In slack, @afragen suggested going down to 5.6.20 as local by flywheel has that as it's PHP version. As that is a fairly popular development environment, it feels like that might make sense.

[dd32]

Replying to jorbin:

In slack, afergen suggested going down to 5.6.20 as local by flywheel has that as it's PHP version. As that is a fairly popular development environment, it feels like that might make sense.

As a personal opinion, I feel like 5.6.20 is the safer option, especially given that bumping it to 5.6.30 doesn't gain WordPress much in the way of added features, bugfixes, or bring any major security improvement (that i'm aware of).

I would normally advocate for supporting down to PHP 5.6.0, just to make messaging and support easier "PHP 5.6 or greater", but given the significantly small fraction of people who would be affected by that change it's not even worth considering.

[jorbin]

Latest patch sets the minimum to 5.6.20, the recommended to 7.3 (to match ​https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/ ), and cleans up the travis config. I believe that is what will be needed in order to finish up the minimum version update.

[afragen]

Thank you many times over.

[netweb]

46594.2.diff​ looks good to me @jorbin 👌

[jorbin]

In 45058:

PHP: Finish updating PHP Minimum version

Previous [44982] and [44950].

This bumps the minimum version down slightly based on some research into the usage of php 5.6. This also brings the recommended version in line with ​https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/ .

The travis matrix is also being reduced in order to speed up builds. This is a hard break. PHP 5.2 - 5.5 we are never ever, ever, getting back together. You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me, But we are never ever, ever, ever getting back together.

Props DD32, afergen for research.
Fixes #46594.

[desrosj]

In 46205:

Code Modernization: Deprecate the Services_JSON and Services_JSON_Error classes.

The PHP native JSON extension has been bundled and compiled with PHP by default since version 5.2.0. Because the minimum version of PHP required by WordPress is now 5.6.20 (see #46594 and [45058]), JSON extension related polyfills and backwards compatibility code can now be removed.

Since there are still some plugins and themes that utilize the Services_JSON class, these classes will remain for the time being, but including the wp-includes/class-json.php file and creating Services_JSON instances will now throw deprecated notices.

See #47699.
Props jrf, Clorith, pento.

[desrosj]

In 46206:

Code Modernization: Remove JSON extension workarounds for PHP < 5.6.

The PHP native JSON extension has been bundled and compiled with PHP by default since version 5.2.0. Because the minimum version of PHP required by WordPress is now 5.6.20 (see #46594 and [45058]), JSON extension related polyfills and backwards compatibility code can now be removed.

This change removes code that supported JSON related functionality on older versions of PHP. This includes (but is not limited to) checks that json_last_error() exists, checking and setting the JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES and JSON_PRETTY_PRINT constants if not previously defined, and deprecating the _wp_json_prepare_data() function (which was 100% workaround code).

Follow up of [46205].

See #47699.
Props jrf, Clorith, pento.

[desrosj]

In 46208:

Code Modernization: Remove JSON related polyfills.

The PHP native JSON extension has been bundled and compiled with PHP by default since version 5.2.0. Because the minimum version of PHP required by WordPress is now 5.6.20 (see #46594 and [45058]), JSON extension related polyfills and backwards compatibility code can now be removed.

This change removes the json_last_error_msg() and JsonSerializable polyfills included in WordPress for full JSON extension support in PHP < 5.6.

Follow up of [46205-46206].

See #47699.
Props jrf, Clorith, pento.

[desrosj]

In 46455:

Upgrade/Install: Detect the presence of the native PHP JSON extension before updating.

The PHP native JSON extension has been bundled and compiled with PHP by default since version 5.2.0. Because the minimum version of PHP required by WordPress is now 5.6.20 (see #46594 and [45058]), the related polyfills and workarounds have been removed (see [46205-46206,46208]).

However, even though the JSON extension is now included in PHP by default, it is still possible to disable the extension in a custom configuration. This change will prevent sites from upgrading if the JSON extension is disabled to prevent compatibility issues.

Props jrf, jorbin, dd32, desrosj.
Fixes #47699.