Hello, I encountered a strange increase of the refcount with the following script:
<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); $tree = array ( 1 => 'one', 2 => 'two', 3 => 'three' ); function &find_node($key, &$node) { xdebug_debug_zval('node'); $item =& $node[$key]; return $item; } $node =& find_node(3, $tree); $node = 'drie'; The xdebug_debug_zval() function looks up the given symbol in the symbol table, and it prints it's refcount/is_ref value too (unlike the debug_zval_dump() function available in PHP which actually modifies those values). Logically you expect the refcount of $node to be 2 (once through the global var $tree, and once as local variable $node. But the refcount actually seems to be 3. I've been tracing things in the engine and found the following places where the refcount of this variable is modified (file/line nos are from php 5.0-dev): Old value = 1 New value = 2 zend_send_ref_handler (execute_data=0xbfffd410, opline=0x85f5440, op_array=0x85f0b64) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:3077 3077 zend_ptr_stack_push(&EG(argument_stack), varptr); (gdb) bt #0 zend_send_ref_handler (execute_data=0xbfffd410, opline=0x85f5440, op_array=0x85f0b64) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:3077 #1 0x0831de66 in execute (op_array=0x85f0b64) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:1415 Old value = 2 New value = 3 0x0831c192 in zend_assign_to_variable_reference (result=0x0, variable_ptr_ptr=0x85f74c8, value_ptr_ptr=0x85e4b8c, Ts=0x0) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:262 262 value_ptr->refcount++; (gdb) bt #0 0x0831c192 in zend_assign_to_variable_reference (result=0x0, variable_ptr_ptr=0x85f74c8, value_ptr_ptr=0x85e4b8c, Ts=0x0) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:262 #1 0x083227d7 in zend_recv_handler (execute_data=0xbfffd1a0, opline=0x85f63bc, op_array=0x85f7a18) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:3109 #2 0x0831de66 in execute (op_array=0x85f7a18) at /dat/dev/php/php-5.0dev/Zend/zend_execute.c:1415 It does not matter if it's passed by reference or not - the value is always 3 inside the function. What is the reason for this? regards, Derick -- Derick Rethans http://derickrethans.nl | http://ez.no | http://xdebug.org -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php