Fatal error: Only variables can be passed by reference in user.module on line 1293

By ecopelan on 3 Oct 2005 at 03:32 UTC

Hey everyone,

I'm kinda new to drupal just installed it today as my personal website and ran into a problem. When I log in as admin go to Administer > Access Control > Configure I get the following error:

Fatal error: Only variables can be passed by reference in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\modules\user.module on line 1293

I'm not familiar enough with the product yet to give much info so if you need any additional info let me know and will try and get it.

There is a mention of a few patches out but not sure where to find those or how to apply them.

Current system is:

w2k3 sp1
IIS 6
php 5.x latest download as of today. 02/10/05
Drupal latest download as of today. 02/10/05
MySQL latest download as of today. 02/10/05

Everything else seems to be working find, can create content new users can sign up etc.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Comments

I've been experiencing

barry commented 5 October 2005 at 20:28

I've been experiencing similar problems with a fresh install i've been playing about with this week. I think the box I'm using is a pretty similar setup.

I've got my techy mate looking into it for me, dunno if he'll figure it out but hey. I'll let you know if he figures it out.

PHP changed behavior in PHP 5.0.5 and PHP 5.1

Bloodwine commented 6 October 2005 at 15:08

Downgrade to PHP 5.0.4 if you can.

I just upgraded my server to 5.0.5 and I got the same error, but I am not running Drupal. I downgraded back to 5.0.4 and all is well.

In my case I am passing the results of a function call to a function that takes a reference.

e.g.:

function Foo (&data) {
// do stuff here
}

function Bar () {
return "hello world";
}

Foo(Bar());

Sounds like PHP 5.0.5 doesn't like that one bit. Probably the fix is to do something like:
$bar = Bar();
Foo($bar);

because it sounds like PHP is forcing the argument to be a variable, and maybe it is treating the results of the function as the string "hello world" instead of a variable.

At anyrate, I consider this to be a PHP bug.

After some googling I found:
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=33643

Apparently Rasmus of PHP doesn't think it is a bug, he thinks the Foo(Bar()) is a bug / badly-written code.

In other words, looks like Drupal will have to update their code to be future-proofed.

EDIT:

you can fix it and keep it as a one liner by doing:
Foo($bar = Bar());

I have done some checking and this is how PHP will require it in PHP 5.0.5+, PHP 5.1, and PHP 4.4.0+

The old way is now broken.

Yup. This change fixes the code.

icenogle commented 15 October 2005 at 11:18

I'm using PHP 5.0.5, and to be explicit about Bloodwine's diagnosis, this change to line 1293 of user.module makes the problem go away:

// Picture settings.
// file_check_directory(file_create_path(variable_get('user_picture_path', 'pictures')), 1, 'user_picture_path');
file_check_directory($foo=file_create_path(variable_get('user_picture_path', 'pictures')), 1, 'user_picture_path');

D Icenogle

Same bug in system.module

icenogle commented 15 October 2005 at 16:12

Precisely the same bug exists in system.module, accessing administer->themes:

Fatal error: Only variables can be passed by reference in C:\htdocs\modules\system.module on line 649

Of course, it has the same fix.

D Icenogle

sorry, i am a newbie. i

henrus commented 26 October 2005 at 20:15

sorry, i am a newbie. i have the same problem in system.module, same line. do you mean to literally type in "$foo=" in that line? :D

I was getting this for line 237

MrMattles commented 2 November 2005 at 16:27

I had to comment it out before it would work.........I also had to apply the $foo update to line 649.....new apache/php 5.0.5 install

Same bug in node.module

tommyblue commented 18 November 2005 at 14:57

The bug is in the line 713, but the structure is different and i can't solve it, the line is:

[712] $items[] = array('path' => 'admin/node/configure/types/'. arg(4),
[713]'title' => t("'%name' content type", array('%name' => node_invoke(arg(4), 'node_name'))),
[714] 'type' => MENU_CALLBACK);

I've found it configuring the Event module

try changing it to:

barry commented 18 November 2005 at 16:56

try changing it to:

[712] $items[] = array('path' => 'admin/node/configure/types/'. arg(4),
[713]'title' => t("'%name' content type", array('%name' => node_invoke($foo=arg(4), 'node_name'))),
[714] 'type' => MENU_CALLBACK);

solution

tommyblue commented 21 November 2005 at 09:33

thank you, but it doesn't work.

i've found the solution adding a line:

$foo = arg(4);
$items[] = array('path' => 'admin/node/configure/types/'. arg(4),
'title' => t("'%name' content type", array('%name' => node_invoke($foo, 'node_name'))),
'type' => MENU_CALLBACK);