[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #57345: Bump the minimum required PHP version to 7.2

[WordPress Trac]

#57345: Bump the minimum required PHP version to 7.2
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 Reporter:  SergeyBiryukov                       |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  task (blessed)                       |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  Future
                                                 |  Release
Component:  General                              |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch has-unit-tests 2nd-        |     Focuses:
  opinion                                        |
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Comment (by azaozz):

 Replying to [comment:34 SergeyBiryukov]:
 > maybe we could do this in two steps for versions that are already below
 5%?
 >
 > * Announce dropping PHP 5.6 support in WP 6.2
 > * Announce dropping PHP 7.0 and 7.1 support in WP 6.3

 Hmm, that may work but what would be the benefits for the WP users and
 contributors in bumping to PHP 7.0, and then again to 7.2 in few months?
 Frankly not seeing any significant
 [https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration70.new-features.php new features
 in PHP 7.0] that would help the WP codebase much.

 Bumping to 7.2 would (at least) mean a native Sodium lib and that we can
 drop the PHPUnit shims and start using PHPUnit 8.5 directly (as far as I
 see). Bumping to 7.4 would mean we can use PHPUnit 9.5 (latest) directly,
 etc.

 Or perhaps can try to come up with a schedule that tries to predict when
 the number of sites would fall under 5% and pre-announces the bumps (look
 at trends, etc.)?

 Still, imho, the best that can be done is to keep trying to convince the
 hosting companies to move WP sites to newer PHP versions. "Second best"
 would be to try to help the admins of sites on outdated PHP versions even
 more and to draw even more attention. Plugins like
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-compatibility-checker/ would still work
 afaik.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/57345#comment:45>
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