Warning about `$HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA` being deprecat

Question

I switched to PHP 5.6.0 and now I get the following warning everywhere:

Deprecated: Automatically populating $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is deprecated and will
be removed in a future version. To avoid this warning set
'always_populate_raw_post_data' to '-1' in php.ini and use the php://input stream
instead. in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent in Unknown on line 0

Fine, I rely on some deprecated feature. Except that I don't!

1. I haven't ever used this variable in any of my scripts. To be honest I had no idea it even exists.
2. phpinfo() shows that I have always_populate_raw_post_data set to 0 (disabled). So what is going on?

I don't want to "avoid the warning" by setting this value to -1. This will just hide the warning, and I'll still have deprecated configuration. I want to solve the problem at its source and know why PHP thinks that HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA populating is turned on.

Answer 1

For anyone still strugling with this problem after changing the php.init as the accepted answer suggests. Since the error ocurs when an ajax petition is made via POST without any parameter all you have to do is change the send method to GET.

var xhr = $.ajax({
   url:  url,
   type: "GET",
   dataType: "html",
   timeout: 500,
});

Still an other option if you want to keep the method POST for any reason is to add an empty JSON object to the ajax petititon.

var xhr = $.ajax({
   url:  url,
   type: "POST",
   data: {name:'emtpy_petition_data', value: 'empty'}
   dataType: "html",
   timeout: 500,
});

Answer 2

It turns out that my understanding of the error message was wrong. I'd say it features very poor choice of words. Googling around shown me someone else misunderstood the message exactly like I did - see PHP bug #66763.

After totally unhelpful "This is the way the RMs wanted it to be." response to that bug by Mike, Tyrael explains that setting it to "-1" doesn't make just the warning to go away. It does the right thing, i.e. it completely disables populating the culprit variable. Turns out that having it set to 0 STILL populates data under some circumstances. Talk about bad design! To cite PHP RFC:

Change always_populate_raw_post_data INI setting to accept three values instead of two.

• -1: The behavior of master; don't ever populate $GLOBALS[HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA]
• 0/off/whatever: BC behavior (populate if content-type is not registered or request method is other than POST)
• 1/on/yes/true: BC behavior (always populate $GLOBALS[HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA])

So yeah, setting it to -1 not only avoids the warning, like the message said, but it also finally disables populating this variable, which is what I wanted.

Answer 3

I got this error message when sending data from a html form (Post method). All I had to do was change the encoding in the form from "text/plain" to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" or "multipart/form-data". The error message was very misleading.

Answer 4

I experienced the same issue on nginx server (DigitalOcean) - all I had to do is to log in as root and modify the file /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini.

To find the line with the always_populate_raw_post_data I first run grep:

grep -n 'always_populate_raw_post_data' php.ini

That returned the line 704

704:;always_populate_raw_post_data = -1

Then simply open php.ini on that line with vi editor:

vi +704 php.ini

Remove the semi colon to uncomment it and save the file :wq

Lastly reboot the server and the error went away.

Answer 5

If the .htaccess file not avilable create it on root folder and past this line of code.

Put this in .htaccess file (tested working well for API)

<IfModule mod_php5.c>
    php_value always_populate_raw_post_data -1
</IfModule>

Answer 6

If you are using WAMP...

you should add or uncomment the property always_populate_raw_post_data in php.ini and set its value to -1. In my case php.ini is located in:

C:\wamp64\bin\php\php5.6.25\php.ini

..but if you are still getting the warning (as I was)

You should also set always_populate_raw_post_data = -1 in phpForApache.ini:

C:\wamp64\bin\php\php5.6.25\phpForApache.ini

If you can't find this file, open a browser window and go to:

http://localhost/?phpinfo=1

and look for the value of Loaded Configuration File key. In my case the php.ini used by WAMP is located in:

C:\wamp64\bin\apache\apache2.4.23\bin\php.ini (symlink to C:\wamp64\bin\php\php5.6.25\phpForApache.ini)

Finally restart WAMP (or click restart all services)