php fatal error when call to a nested function such as time() header() etc

Question

Today I met a problem above:

[03-Nov-2017 19:29:02 Asia/Shanghai] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function header() in /www/xxxx/api/login.php on line 5

[03-Nov-2017 19:27:37 Asia/Shanghai] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function dirname() in /www/xxxx/index.php on line 9

...

I cannot find the reason and solution. anyone helps me, thanks.

add my code.

<?php
header('Content-type:text/html; charset=utf8');
include_once dirname(__FILE__). '/global.inc.php';

echo 'HELLO WORLD';

this problem happens sometimes and have last for one day, in my online website. what i can do is to reload each 1 hour.

anyone knows how to solve it??? THXTHX

UPDATE: Server Info added: Nginx Server, CentOS release 6.3. PHP Version 5.4.41

What confuse me most is that this problem happened suddenly on my online website with no changes published.

can you please attach some code! We'll try to solve it as fast as we can! — user8713979
– user8713979, Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 12:03
first check this link . it might help you. stackoverflow.com/questions/7186926/… — prakash tank
– prakash tank, Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 12:04
it happens sometimes, and will be fine after I reload the php-fpm, and it happens about 40~50min again. — yip
– yip, Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 12:08

jaswrks · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-09 16:57:49Z

1

A really wild guess, but these errors could be deceiving you.

[03-Nov-2017 19:29:02 Asia/Shanghai] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function header() in /www/xxxx/api/login.php on line 5

[03-Nov-2017 19:27:37 Asia/Shanghai] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function dirname() in /www/xxxx/index.php on line 9

What if header() and dirname() contain a leading unicode character that is invisible or was somehow stripped from your log files? They might look like built-in PHP functions, but maybe your code contains special characters either in compiled form, or at runtime. In other words, header() might not be what you think it is. Even though it looks that way in the log.

I suggest a quick review of the following:

Who is writing code and in what editor? Is their editor adding a BOM (Byte Order Marker) to the beginning of each file? If so, don't do that. See: UTF-8 BOM signature in PHP files
Do your PHP files begin with a declare(encoding=...) line? If so, is that correct; i.e., does it match the editor's encoding? Better to exclude this.
Is zend.multibyte enabled in php.ini? If so, does enabling or disabling this make any difference? See: http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.zend.multibyte
Is zend.script_encoding set in php.ini? If so, does changing this improve the situation? See: http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.zend.script-encoding
Is zend.detect-unicode set in php.ini? If so, does changing that improve anything? See: http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.zend.detect-unicode
Are you running an OPcache extension? e.g, APC, Zend Optimizer, the newer built-in OPcache? If so, are these becoming corrupted when you monitor?

edited Nov 9, 2017 at 16:57

answered Nov 6, 2017 at 9:41

jaswrks

1,28510 silver badges13 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

hanshenrik Over a year ago

for gods sake, don't use declare(encoding), juse use a sane editor that use utf8. it's very difficult to imagine an exception to this rule.

jaswrks Over a year ago

Agree. And just wanted to add that I didn't mean to imply that it should be done that way. Just to check and be sure the existing file(s) do not have this, such they it would alter the anticipated behavior.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

php fatal error when call to a nested function such as time() header() etc

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related