Re: [PHP-DEV] Consistent case-insensitive module registry lookups

On 18-8-2026 16:51, Matteo Beccati wrote:
> Il 18/08/2026 15:04, Aleksander Machniak ha scritto:
>> I don't agree that case-sensitive here would be better.
>>
>> There's multiple variations of extension names, e.g. PDO, SimpleXML, 
>> Xdebug, swoole.
>>
>> And for example --disable-simplexml exists (btw, is this one case- 
>> insensitive? why not --disable-SimleXML?). The point is that in some 
>> places you don't have to know the exact casing. So, why would I have 
>> to know when checking for an extension existence?
>>
>> More importantly, is it possible currently to have both Myext and 
>> myext enabled?
>>
>> I'd say there might be more arguments for case-insensitive solution 
>> here.
>
> Wearing my RM hat, I've already mentioned that I'd be perfectly fine 
> with 8.6 having a case‑insensitive `ini_get_all()`.
>
> Wearing any other hat I might have, I agree that keeping extension 
> names case‑insensitive makes far more sense.
>
> To me, this would be one of those useless BC breaks that make the user 
> experience worse instead of improving it.

Another voice here for case- INsensitive.

Case-sensitive makes no sense to me at all as the names of some 
extensions can be written in various different case-sensitive ways.
Think: simplexml, Simplexml, SimpleXML, SimpleXml etc ...

Now, how would a dev know what the "proper" case is for a case-sensitive 
$extensions argument ?
I can already hear people say - "oh, but those functions should not work 
on "proper" case, but should take _lowercase_ extension names"....

Except, now you want to create a "loaded extension version list" and you 
use `get_loaded_extensions()` and now you'd have to lowercase every 
extension name before passing it on to `phpversion()`.

So, in my opinion, case-INsensitive for the $extensions arguments is the 
only thing that makes any sense and doesn't make life harder for developers.

And as a dev user without vote, I'd be perfectly fine for that change 
(making the $extensions parameter for ini_get_all() case-insensitive) to 
go into PHP 8.6 as a bug fix.

Smile,
Juliette