Problem/Motivation

1. CacheBackendInterface contains const CACHE_PERMANENT = -1.
2. Drupal\Core\Cache\Cache contains const PERMANENT = CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT.
3. Both constants are referenced in the interface, but inconsistently:

interface CacheBackendInterface {

  /**
   * ...
   * @param int $expire
   *   One of the following values:
   *   - CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT: Indicates that the item should
   *     not be removed unless it is deleted explicitly.
   * ...
   */
  public function set($cid, $data, $expire = Cache::PERMANENT, array $tags = array());

  /**
   * ...
   *       // Optional, defaults to CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT.
   *       'expire' => CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT,
   * ...
   */

  /* ... */
}

There's no obvious explanation as to why these two constants are set equal in the first place, or when one should be used and not the other; which means it's difficult to work out whether or not this is even a bug in code.

Proposed resolution

Either this is a code bug or a (lack of) documentation bug, so either one should be patched.

Remaining tasks

1. Determine what kind of bug it is and maybe update the component accordingly.
2. Propose a fix and create a patch.
3. Approve patch.

User interface changes

None.

API changes

None.

Data model changes

None.

Comments

jp.stacey created an issue. See original summary.

Anonymous’s picture

Anonymous (not verified) commented

Slice of history:
Cache::PERMANENT appeared just for simplify usage (see #2169447: DX: Supply CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT as Cache::PERMANENT).
Mentioned comment in CacheBackendInterface appeared earlier, but was commited later (see #1167248: Add CacheBackendInterface::setMultiple()).

jp.stacey’s picture

jp.stacey commented

@vapias thanks for the background. I can see why Cache::PERMANENT might have been introduced; but I'm not 100% sure CacheInterface::set(), as an interface method, should be referring to a const from a concrete class as an argument default: it feels like we're extending in the wrong direction; like there's like a weak cyclical dependency at work here. Cache::set() could certainly refer to its own const, though.

But I'm not really opinionated either way: the main thing is that, even if there's no change to the code, it would be good if one or other of the docblocks for the consts at least made some reference to why the decision was made.

Would appreciate opinions from people more opinionated than me: do we want to change the code, or just the docblocks?

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catch’s picture

catch
he/him
Primary language English
commented
Title: Cache::PERMANENT and CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT are arbitrarily swapped » Pick one of Cache::PERMANENT and CacheBackendInterface::CACHE_PERMANENT and deprecate the other
Category: Bug report » Task

No functional bug here but agree this is confusing, I think we should pick one.

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