Problem/Motivation

PHP 7 provides widely recognized significant performance benefits. We also need to do our part to make sure hosts don't get complacent. Drupal was a leader in the successful GoPHP5 movement which brought PHP hosts, and thus development, into the 21st century, a mere 10 years late. With WordPress, a laggard in the PHP5 movement, now stepping up and strongly recommending PHP version 7, it's time for Drupal to do the same, as Rachel Lawson tweeted.

One year ago in #2524432: Suggest PHP 5.6 as the recommended version Crell wrote "I fully expect that in a year we'll want to tell people to use PHP 7". That expectation should be realized! And if we don't at least recommend PHP 7, that issue, and our development, will be held up on PHP 5.5.9 forever.

And of course, Drupal 8 is, and has been, PHP7-ready: #2454439: [META] Support PHP 7

Proposed resolution

Update the text on the system requirements pages:

* https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/system-requirements/overview
* https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/system-requirements/php#8

For example:

"Drupal 8: PHP 7 or higher recommended. PHP 5.5.9 or higher required."

This separates out (and supersedes) step one of #2524432: Suggest PHP 5.6 as the recommended version. Refrained from hijacking that entire ticket as documentation can lead information notices from Drupal itself.

Comments

mlncn created an issue. See original summary.

mlncn’s picture

mlncn commented
Issue summary: View changes
damienmckenna’s picture

damienmckenna
Location TN, USA
commented
Issue tags: -php7

+1 for doing this. FYI I believe "PHP 7" is the official tag.

mlncn’s picture

mlncn commented
Related issues: +#2605226: Require PHP 7 for Drupal 8.2

Meant to mention recommending (rather than requiring) PHP 7 had a +1 from catch and others in #2605226: Require PHP 7 for Drupal 8.2

cilefen’s picture

cilefen commented
Related issues: +#2814933: PHP 7 test runs should be on released versions
Crell’s picture

Crell commented

On behalf of Platform.sh, +1! We're already defaulting all Drupal 8 sites to PHP 7.

David_Rothstein’s picture

David_Rothstein commented

Is this a duplicate of #2670966: Warn users of old PHP versions?

David_Rothstein’s picture

David_Rothstein commented
Related issues: +#2670966: Warn users of old PHP versions, +#2842431: [policy] Remove PHP 5.5, 5.6 support in Drupal 8.7

Sorry, I missed this part:

This separates out (and supersedes) step one of #2524432: Suggest PHP 5.6 as the recommended version. Refrained from hijacking that entire ticket as documentation can lead information notices from Drupal itself.

and also managed to misread "System Requirements" (a documentation page title) as "system_requirements" (a function name) when I looked at the issue title :)

So this is not a duplicate, but it is related.

And seems worth doing - would like to do it for Drupal 7 too, although I'm not sure if contrib module support is quite good enough yet.

David_Rothstein’s picture

David_Rothstein commented
Status: Active » Reviewed & tested by the community

Everyone seems to be in agreement above, and I can't think of a reason not to do it for Drupal 8 - marking RTBC.

alexpott’s picture

alexpott
he/they
Primary language English
Location 🇪🇺🌍
commented
Version: 8.2.x-dev » 8.3.x-dev

I think we should only do this once we support 7.1 which we're not quite ready for :(

The two blockers ATM are:

Both of these are quite sad because they are API breaking and seem extreme for minor versions but I guess this is the new normal for PHP rapidly iterating.

Also if we're going to do this should we introduce a recommendation in system requirements?

catch’s picture

catch
he/him
Primary language English
commented
Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Postponed

We already have issues open for system requirements, I think it's fine to do them separately.

Let's explicitly mark this postponed on green branch tests for PHP 7.1.

Mixologic’s picture

Mixologic
He/Him/His
Primary language English
Location Portland, OR
commented

PS. We added 7.1 to drupalci today.

Version: 8.3.x-dev » 8.4.x-dev

Drupal 8.3.0-alpha1 will be released the week of January 30, 2017, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.4.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.4.x-dev » 8.5.x-dev

Drupal 8.4.0-alpha1 will be released the week of July 31, 2017, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.5.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

andypost’s picture

andypost
he/him
Primary language Russian
commented
Status: Postponed » Active

Time has come

Version: 8.5.x-dev » 8.6.x-dev

Drupal 8.5.0-alpha1 will be released the week of January 17, 2018, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.6.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.6.x-dev » 8.7.x-dev

Drupal 8.6.0-alpha1 will be released the week of July 16, 2018, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.7.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

pasqualle’s picture

pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
commented
Version: 8.7.x-dev » 7.x-dev

For D8 php7 is already the recommended version https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/system-requirements/php-requirements
For D7 it is still php5 https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/system-requirements/overview

pasqualle’s picture

pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
commented
Title: Recommend PHP 7 in System Requirements documentation » Wrong recommended PHP version for Drupal 7
Project: Drupal core » Documentation
Version: 7.x-dev »
Component: documentation » Correction/Clarification
Category: Task » Bug report

actually

"5.4 or higher recommended" here:
https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/system-requirements/overview

The minimum recommended PHP version for Drupal 7 is PHP 7.1.x" here:
https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/system-requirements/php-requirements

please someone with access update the first page..

pfrenssen’s picture

pfrenssen
Location Sofia
commented

I updated the page.

pasqualle’s picture

pasqualle
Location 🇭🇺 Budapest
commented

Do you know what is the reason that for Drupal 8 the recommended minimum is PHP7.2 and for Drupal 7 the recommended minimum is PHP7.1? Is it related to how long the current release is supported?

hansfn’s picture

hansfn commented
Status: Active » Fixed

The reason that PHP 7.1 was recommended for Drupal 7, was that 7.2 wasn't supported before recently - see release notes for version 7.61. I'll update to 7.2 on both pages now.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed - issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.