zend_call_function() now takes a structure that should contain all of the
necessary information. If further information is necessary in the future,
then we'll be able to add it without having to introduce a new function.
As for caching - the 2nd, optional argument is a struct that can hold all
of the information that's necessary to invoke the function, including its
handler, scope and object it operates on (if any). Note that you may only
use a cache if the arguments you provide to zend_call_function() are
identical to the ones of the last call, except for the argument and return
value information.
The recently introduced fast_call_user_function() was removed
I fixed most of the places that used fast_call_user_function() to use caching
but there are still some that need to be fixed (XML and reflection)
including:
- Whether or not to pass by ref (replaces the old arg_types, with arg_info)
- Argument name (for future use, maybe introspection)
- Class/Interface name (for type hints)
- If a class/interface name is available, whether to allow a null instance
Both user and builtin functions share the same data structures.
To declare a builtin function that expects its first arg to be an instance
of class 'Person', its second argument as a regular arg, and its third by
reference, use:
ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_INFO(my_func_arg_info, 0)
ZEND_ARG_OBJ_INFO(0, someone, Person, 1)
ZEND_ARG_PASS_INFO(0)
ZEND_ARG_PASS_INFO(1)
ZEND_END_ARG_INFO();
and use my_func_arg_info as the arg_info parameter to the ZEND_FE() family
of macros.
The first arg to each ZEND_ARG_*() macro is whether or not to pass by ref.
The boolean arg to ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_INFO() tells the engine whether to treat
the arguments for which there's no explicit information as pass by reference
or not.
The boolean argument to ZEND_ARG_OBJ_INFO() (4th arg) is whether or not to allownull values.