Change in class name resolution for `self`, `parent` and `static`

[thekid]

Description

The following code:

<?php
$r= new ReflectionClass(new class() {
  public function instance(): self { return $this; }
});

$type= $r->getMethod('instance')->getReturnType();
echo $type->getName();

Resulted in this output:

"class@anonymous"

At first sight, this is OK, as it seems PHP simply resolves the name now. However, after checking the details, this is not the real class name as everything after the NUL byte in the anonymous class name is truncated. If we now try to re-create a ReflectionClass instance, we will see a ReflectionException: Class "class@anonymous" does not exist error.

But I expected this output instead:

"self"

or

"class@anonymous\000Command line code:1$0"

PHP Version

PHP 8.5.0-dev (cli) (built: Apr 20 2025 23:34:30) (NTS Visual C++ 2022 x64)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.5.0-dev, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies

Operating System

Windows

[iluuu1994]

@Girgias I'm not sure if this is related to your name resolution change. I'm on mobile and will check later, feel free to unassign if not.

[thekid]

This was introduced in #17755

[iluuu1994]

@thekid 3v4l does show the data after the NUL byte, though.

[thekid]

You're right, as does a PHP binary I compiled myself from a current GIT checkout on WSL/Ubuntu:

$ ./sapi/cli/php -v
PHP 8.5.0-dev (cli) (built: Apr 21 2025 11:34:35) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.5.0-dev, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies

$ ./sapi/cli/php /mnt/c/Tools/Cygwin/home/timmf/devel/xp/core/reflect.php
class@anonymous/mnt/c/Tools/Cygwin/home/timmf/devel/xp/core/reflect.php:10$0

The PHP binary used above is from https://github.com/shivammathur/php-builder-windows/actions/runs/14564331124 (nts-windows-vs17-x64), I'll retry with more recent build once available.

[Girgias]

Are you sure about it? It seems to work just "fine" https://3v4l.org/5D2aT/rfc#vgit.master, but if it causes issues preventing the resolution of self for anonymous classes should be quite easy to do.

[iluuu1994]

Excluding anonymous classes seems sensible, restricting substitution in getReturnType() to things the user could enter manually.

[thekid]

Are you sure about it?

At least with the Windows binaries, I've been able to reproduce. I don't have the PHP build system available on my machine, there are no PHP 8.5-binaries on https://windows.php.net/download/, so I use the ones from https://github.com/shivammathur/php-builder-windows/actions. Their build from today exhibits the same faulty behavior.

With a PHP compiled from scratch on WSL, I cannot reproduce the issue - and 3v4l uses Linux builds, too. Is this maybe a Windows-only thing?

/cc @shivammathur

[thekid]

if it causes issues preventing the resolution of self for anonymous classes should be quite easy to do

This would be great, especially when using the reflection API to generate API docs:

Class [ <user> class class@anonymous(command line argument):1$8 ] {
  @@ (command line argument) 1-1

  - Constants [0] {
  }

  - Static properties [0] {
  }

  - Static methods [0] {
  }

  - Properties [0] {
  }

  - Methods [1] {
    Method [ <user> public method instance ] {
      @@ (command line argument) 1 - 1

      - Parameters [0] {
      }
      - Return [ class@anonymous ]   // 👈 "self" would be more helpful here!
    }
  }
}