[Mediawiki-l] How to unstub a global from a method with a pass-by-reference argument

[Juliano F. Ravasi]

When calling, for example:

     $wgParser->startExternalParse( $wgTitle, $popt, Parser::OT_WIKI );

If $wgParser is a stub, it will invoke StubObject::__call() passing the 
first argument ($wgTitle) by value. $wgParser will be unstubbed, and 
then call_user_func_array() will then call Parser::startExternalParse 
passing the argument by value, which will break since the first argument 
is a reference.

> PHP Warning:  Parameter 1 to Parser::startExternalParse() expected to 
> be a reference, value given in .../includes/StubObject.php on line 58

Passing &$wgTitle instead (although considered obsolete) works for some 
versions of PHP, for others, it breaks in a different way:

> PHP Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated; If you 
> would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration of [runtime 
> function name]().  If you would like to enable call-time 
> pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true 
> in your INI file in ... on line ... 

The documentation on StubObject seems to suggest that the mechanism 
should be transparent. Currently, the only way I could find to do this 
call is to test the object with StubObject::isRealObject() and then 
manually call $wgParser->_unstub(), which is hardly "transparent". And 
it is also hard to predict every single place that you may happen to be 
dealing with a stub object.

Am I missing something? What is the correct way to call a method with a 
pass-by-reference argument on a stub object?

Regards,

-- 
Juliano F. Ravasi ·· http://juliano.info/
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