php / php/doc-en

“Collecting Cycles” does not accurately explain the algorithm

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Category: Engine enhancement
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Description

https://www.php.net/manual/en/features.gc.collecting-cycles.php

As discussed in PHPC Discord:

So the color “grey” guards whether the refcounts of the children were already decreased, not whether the refcount of the zval itself were decreased.
That's the missing piece in the PHP explanation.

(https://discord.com/channels/356354025865740288/862784909922795600/1338911678859051088 + previous messages for context)

Contributor guide

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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

Start with the Collecting Cycles page linked in the issue and review the cited PHPC Discord discussion for the algorithm context. Update the explanation so it accurately states what the grey color guards, then verify that the revised documentation reflects the quoted missing distinction.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
php
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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