[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by edgeless

My point is that it seems the preferred approach in many cases rather than to try and identify which file(s)/code sections aren't working properly. Ok, granted, it makes sense in that uploading all of the files can be the shortest path to resolving a corrupted system and thus save a significant amount of time. I guess I'm just saying that it's an extremely common recommendation from vB support staff and that it's kind of reminiscent of OS support techs telling folks with OS issues they're not able to resolve to reformat and reinstall.

It's absolutely nothing like telling people to reformat and reinstall their Operating System!

It's asking people to dowbnload a fresh copy of the files, and upload them to the server. It doesn't wipe out the forum and start it from scratch, it merely replaces the existing files with new copies.

It's more similar to asking a computer user to reboot their computer and see if the problem continues.

If we were to site down and analyze every single file to establish if any of them were corrupt, this would be hours if not days of work. Would you be willing to be many thousands of pounds for your license in order that sufficient support staff could be recruited and trained in order to make this feasible while retaining realistic response times? Or would it be better to carry on saying "you may have a corrupt file, please donwload a fresh copy of the files from the members area and upload them to the server"?

Just because a solution is suggested a lot, doesn't make it an invalid solution. It's suggested a lot because it often works.

--------------- Added [DATE]1423564788[/DATE] at [TIME]1423564788[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by edgeless

Well, I know that it disables warnings. Are you telling me that it doesn't? Disable, conceal, hide... same difference, really.

You're now saying "warnings" when previously you said "errors". The very fact that you're interchanging two entirely unrelated terms proves that you don't really understand what that line of code does, or why we use it. I don't mean that nastily, I'm just stating facts.

A php ERROR will, in most cases, stop execution of the code. Meaning, the page won't load, you'll usually either see just a white screen, or else you'll see a white screen with the actual error in black text, and usually little else. An error means there is an actual error in the code, of some sort, could be a syntax error, or calling an undefined function, or any number of different programming errors in the code.

A php WARNING is telling you something, but it does not normally stop the execution of the code (though if displayed on screen it may cause some functions to break or not operate correctly). The "something" it is telling you, is commonly that the function being used is "deprecated" - it will still work, but it may be removed in a future version of php. It os absolutely NOT an error, it's not rmeotely related to an error. A production server should, if it is set up correctly, be configured NOT to display these. However, many servers are not set up correctly, and thus display them. Ever since it started, vBulletin used to add code that supressed these php warnings in the event that the server was not configured to suppress them itself. In vBulletin 4.2.2, we stopped doing this. All that the line of code mentioned (SKIP_DS_ERRORS) does, is restore the previous behaviour.

The only confusing thing is that the word "ERRORS" is used in SKIP_DS_ERRORS, really it ought to be SKIP_DS_WARNINGS and then we wouldn't have this discussion coming up endelssly.

Short version: They aren't errors, and nobody's hiding any errors, there is nothing to "fix rather than hide", it's all perfectly legitimate.