Admin: remove_menu_page throws PHP warning when $menu is null

[anonymized_15266067]

error.log:

[Thu Aug 29 21:48:07.078821 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16202] [client 172.69.58.130:44688] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/shop.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://shop.example.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?plugin_status=all&paged=1&s

[Thu Aug 29 21:48:20.875148 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16197] [client 172.69.59.57:34548] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/www.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://example.com/wp-admin/

[Thu Aug 29 21:49:08.193887 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16191] [client 172.69.58.29:63630] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/shop.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://shop.example.com/wp-admin/index.php

[Thu Aug 29 21:50:08.131920 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16388] [client 172.69.58.223:63418] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/shop.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://shop.example.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?plugin_status=all&paged=1&s

[Thu Aug 29 21:50:21.769929 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16193] [client 172.69.58.231:25962] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/www.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://example.com/wp-admin/

[Thu Aug 29 21:51:08.308475 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16384] [client 172.69.58.183:64764] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/shop.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://shop.example.com/wp-admin/index.php

[Thu Aug 29 21:52:22.795278 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16202] [client 172.69.58.24:28566] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/www.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://example.com/wp-admin/

[Thu Aug 29 21:53:05.970841 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16197] [client 172.69.58.163:36022] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/shop.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://shop.example.com/wp-admin/index.php

[Thu Aug 29 21:53:08.902748 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16197] [client 172.69.58.163:36022] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/shop.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://shop.example.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?plugin_status=all&paged=1&s

[Thu Aug 29 21:53:23.836918 2024] [php:warn] [pid 16191] [client 172.69.59.91:51414] PHP Warning:  foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/example.com/www.example.com/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1853, referer: https://example.com/wp-admin/

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/61962

[narenin]

Hi @xbigx

Welcome to the Core Trac!

This warning is coming because null is passed to foreach. I have created the PR with patch for the same.

Thanks for the detailed information.

[ironprogrammer]

Welcome to Trac, @xbigx, and thanks for the report! And thank you, @narenin, for a proposed patch!

It would be really helpful if ​testing instructions were provided so that other contributors could attempt to reproduce the error, and then validate the patch. I'm not able to reproduce this error using a vanilla install of WordPress.

I'm marking this ticket with reporter-feedback to request additional information from @xbigx, such as environment or plugin information that may point to how remove_menu_page is being called. For instance, if it's being called before the $menu global has been initialized (like in the plugins_loaded hook), then it may point toward a different problem.

I've also updated the ticket title for clarity.

[hellofromTonya]

I too am unable to reproduce this reported issue.

Also, not seeing any changes made in 6.6.1 release that might contribute the reported issue. Removing it as the Version.

[arnolp]

reproducing the issue on WordPress 6.7
All my remove_menuhooks are on 'admin_menu' or 'admin_init'

[ironprogrammer]

Thanks, @arnolp! Would you be able to provide some ​testing instructions to help reproduce the error? As noted in comment:3 and comment:4, additional context of the environment, plugins (even snippets), etc would help move this forward.

[njwp]

same issue with me. I suspect it is if woocommerce is installed.
I use admin_init
As far as I can see admn_init seems to be run twice - once when the menu exists and once when it doesn't. So the menu items are actually correctly removed (in the instance when the menu has a value) but the error is thrown in the instance when the menu doesn't have a value. I could be totally wrong but that's what it feels like.

Instead of using remove_menu_page, I just used the code from that function in my functions.php and wrapped it with

if($menu){}

Works perfectly.

Compare to the remove_submenu_page function which DOES check for existence of the menu item:

if ( ! isset( $submenu[ $menu_slug ] ) ) {

return false;

}