PHP 8.3 not working on Windows 7

[nono303]

Description

Hi,
Just trying to run PHP 8.3.0 on Windows 7 (after successfully compiling it on Win11 vs17 x64) and it's failed with message

According to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/processthreadsapi/nf-processthreadsapi-getcurrentthreadstacklimits it's normal as requirements are:

• Minimum supported client Windows 8 [desktop apps | UWP apps]
• Minimum supported server Windows Server 2012 [desktop apps | UWP apps]

It had also been clearly mentioned on #9104 (comment)
Looking to the source code, I found GetCurrentThreadStackLimits used in Zend/zend_call_stack.c

Based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/52404641 I dirtily applied the patch and now PHP 8.3.0 run fine on windows 7

diff --git "a/Zend/zend_call_stack.c" "b/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
index 06ee521911..9fc2b570bc 100644
--- "a/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
+++ "b/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
@@ -376,7 +376,22 @@ static bool zend_call_stack_get_win32(zend_call_stack *stack)
 	 *                v  Lower addresses   v
 	 */
 
-	GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+	static void (WINAPI* GetCurrentThreadStackLimits)(PULONG_PTR , PULONG_PTR);
+	if (!GetCurrentThreadStackLimits) {
+		*(void**)&GetCurrentThreadStackLimits = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle(L"kernel32"), "GetCurrentThreadStackLimits");
+		if (!GetCurrentThreadStackLimits) {
+			NT_TIB* tib = (NT_TIB*)NtCurrentTeb();
+			high_limit = (ULONG_PTR)tib->StackBase;
+			MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION mbi;
+			if (VirtualQuery(tib->StackLimit, &mbi, sizeof(mbi))) {
+				low_limit = (ULONG_PTR)mbi.AllocationBase;
+			}
+		} else {
+			GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+		}
+	} else {
+		GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+	}
 
 	result_size = VirtualQuery((void*)low_limit,
 			&uncommitted_region, sizeof(uncommitted_region));

So... Does this patch (or a corrected one as I don't really master all the elements) would make sense to ensure PHP a long life on old Windows OS ?

PHP Version

PHP 8.3.0

Operating System

Windows 7 x64

[nielsdos]

Windows 7 has been out of support for almost 4 years. Windows server 2008 r2 is out of support except on some azure services where support will end in 2 months.
I don't personally believe we should support outdated/unsupported operating systems.

[kallesommernielsen]

This is an intentional change and also listed in the upgrade guide for 8.3

[nono303]

This is an intentional change and also listed in the upgrade guide for 8.3

Thx!
I didn't not see https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration83.windows-support.php
I just referred to https://www.php.net/ChangeLog-8.php#PHP_8_3 which seems not have this intentional change in the list...

However, if GetCurrentThreadStackLimits is the only blocker to use 8.3 on an well-known EOL OS, could this patch had a chance to be considered & qualified ?

[nielsdos]

However, if GetCurrentThreadStackLimits is the only blocker to use 8.3 on an well-known EOL OS, could this patch had a chance to be considered & qualified ?

What I don't like about the current patch is how it will keep retrying GetProcAddress even if the first attempt failed.

Not sure how others feel about supporting unsupported OS.

[nielsdos]

I am going to close this as wontfix.
The reason is that I don't think we should support obsolete operating systems that are not even supported anymore by its developers. And also because the procedure fetching can cause slowdowns.

[bukka]

I agree, we should no longer support Windows 7 in new versions. We shoud keep compatibility on 8.2 but it's fine if 8.3 will no longer support it.

[nono303]

Hi,
Thx for yours feedback, fully agree on your statement.
As I'll use this patch for my own, I've dug a little bit on it and here is a qualified & tested version
I just write it here for the posterity if others would like to use it with some background

1. I reviewed the approach of the nested if and fix it according to what is actually done in https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/win32/time.c#L33
   • Normally, all properties are retrieved by reference and nothing need to be freed
2. I put some debug info to check
   • Non regression for supported OS
   • values accuracy between the two methods on supported OS
   • eventual time overhead on LoadLibrary & GetProcAddress
3. Benching difference between 8.2.13 and 8.3.0
   • Run https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/Zend/micro_bench.php

     Ref. 2023-11-29 1.136 [8.3.0 - jit 1254]
     Ref. 2022-12-07 1.123 [8.2.0 - jit 1254]

   • Launch my own benchmark on a php WMTS server (16000 hits parallelized by 32, on an old i5 sandybridge with some compute, gd, regexp…)
     • almost the same
       • Memory footprint (privates bytes and working set)
       • cpu (sys & usr)
       • total time

Final

diff --git "a/Zend/zend_call_stack.c" "b/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
index 06ee521911..0ac230a0bd 100644
--- "a/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
+++ "b/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
@@ -376,7 +376,19 @@ static bool zend_call_stack_get_win32(zend_call_stack *stack)
 	 *                v  Lower addresses   v
 	 */
 
-	GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+	typedef void (WINAPI* FuncT)(PULONG_PTR , PULONG_PTR);
+	HINSTANCE hDLL = LoadLibrary("Kernel32.dll");
+	FuncT GetCurrentThreadStackLimits = (FuncT) GetProcAddress((HMODULE)hDLL, "GetCurrentThreadStackLimits");
+	if (GetCurrentThreadStackLimits) {
+		GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+	} else {
+		NT_TIB* tib = (NT_TIB*)NtCurrentTeb();
+		high_limit = (ULONG_PTR)tib->StackBase;
+		MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION mbi;
+		if (VirtualQuery(tib->StackLimit, &mbi, sizeof(mbi))) {
+			low_limit = (ULONG_PTR)mbi.AllocationBase;
+		}
+	}
 
 	result_size = VirtualQuery((void*)low_limit,
 			&uncommitted_region, sizeof(uncommitted_region));

Debug

diff --git "a/Zend/zend_call_stack.c" "b/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
index 06ee521911..eebf45feb5 100644
--- "a/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
+++ "b/Zend/zend_call_stack.c"
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include "zend_portability.h"
 #include "zend_call_stack.h"
 #include <stdint.h>
+#include <time.h>
 #ifdef ZEND_WIN32
 # include <processthreadsapi.h>
 # include <memoryapi.h>
@@ -376,7 +377,37 @@ static bool zend_call_stack_get_win32(zend_call_stack *stack)
 	 *                v  Lower addresses   v
 	 */
 
-	GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+	clock_t begin = clock();
+	typedef void (WINAPI* FuncT)(PULONG_PTR , PULONG_PTR);
+	HINSTANCE hDLL = LoadLibrary("Kernel32.dll");
+	FuncT GetCurrentThreadStackLimits = (FuncT) GetProcAddress((HMODULE)hDLL, "GetCurrentThreadStackLimits");
+	if (GetCurrentThreadStackLimits) {
+		GetCurrentThreadStackLimits(&low_limit, &high_limit);
+		ULONG_PTR tmp_low_limit, tmp_high_limit;
+		NT_TIB* tib = (NT_TIB*)NtCurrentTeb();
+		tmp_high_limit = (ULONG_PTR)tib->StackBase;
+		MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION mbi;
+		if (VirtualQuery(tib->StackLimit, &mbi, sizeof(mbi))) {
+			tmp_low_limit = (ULONG_PTR)mbi.AllocationBase;
+		}
+		fprintf(stderr, "GetCurrentThreadStackLimits (%lu =? %lu) (%lu =? %lu)\n",(uintptr_t)low_limit, (uintptr_t)tmp_low_limit,(uintptr_t)high_limit,(uintptr_t)tmp_high_limit);
+		fprintf(stderr, "GetCurrentThreadStackLimits %lu %lu\n",(uintptr_t)low_limit,(uintptr_t)high_limit);
+	} else {
+		NT_TIB* tib = (NT_TIB*)NtCurrentTeb();
+		high_limit = (ULONG_PTR)tib->StackBase;
+		MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION mbi;
+		if (VirtualQuery(tib->StackLimit, &mbi, sizeof(mbi))) {
+			low_limit = (ULONG_PTR)mbi.AllocationBase;
+		}
+		fprintf(stderr, "StackLimitStackBase %lu %lu\n",(uintptr_t)low_limit, (uintptr_t)high_limit);
+	}
+	clock_t end = clock();
+	unsigned long millis = (end -  begin) * 1000 / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
+	fprintf(stderr, "time_spent %lu\n",millis);
 
 	result_size = VirtualQuery((void*)low_limit,
 			&uncommitted_region, sizeof(uncommitted_region));

[kangarko]

Less than 50 lines of code needed to support an entire operating system? I think that's an insult to the entire Win 7 community.