php / php/doc-en

sem_get add warning about freeing variable

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enhancement good first issue
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Description

From manual page: https://php.net/function.sem-get

sem_get() has an important gotcha where if the variable is freed then the semaphore is released. I propose this is not quite a bug but could do with a red warning box e.g.

Warning: sem_get will also auto_release the semaphore when the variable which holds it is freed (rather than the process ending). Ensure you store the result in a variable which is not overwritten, unset, or goes out of scope while the semaphore should be alive.

This behaviour can be demonstrated with the following:

$semGet = sem_get(1);

var_dump(sem_acquire($semGet, true));
// true: semaphore(1) acquired

var_dump(sem_acquire(sem_get(1), true));
// false: semaphore(1) already acquired

unset($semGet);

var_dump(sem_acquire(sem_get(1), true));
// true: semaphore(1) released by variable unset() so can be acquired again

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Open the sem_get() manual page linked in the issue and inspect its existing warning or note sections. Add the warning about auto_release when the result variable is freed, overwritten, unset, or goes out of scope, then confirm the rendered page clearly documents the demonstrated behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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