Error control operator may trigger a fatal error with PHP 8.0

[benoitchantre]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

In many plugins, I have noticed an issue with the error control operator @ used with set_time_limit().

The error happens when PHP 8.0 is used and when set_time_limit() has been disabled on the server.

Prior to PHP 8.0.0, it was possible for the @ operator to disable critical errors that will terminate script execution. For example, prepending @ to a call of a function which did not exist, by being unavailable or mistyped, would cause the script to terminate with no indication as to why.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.errorcontrol.php

Describe the solution you'd like

I think the sniffs should look for the error operator and trigger a warning.

Additional context (optional)

• PHP 8.0
• any disabled function used with the error operator

[jrfnl]

@benoitchantre It already does. The WordPress.PHP.NoSilencedErrors sniff does exactly that and is included in both the WordPress-Core as well as the WordPress-Extra rulesets.

For Core, the sniff respects a list of PHP native functions for which to allow the @ operator (which doesn't include the set_time_limit() function). For Extra that list is disregarded by default and a warning will be thrown for all uses of @.

[benoitchantre]

@jrfnl Thank you for the detailed answer.

[jrfnl]

@benoitchantre Happy to help.