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! — , Nov 03 '17 at 12:03
first check this link . it might help you. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7186926/fatal-error-call-to-undefined-function-phpinclude — prakash tank, Nov 03 '17 at 12:04
it happens sometimes, and will be fine after I reload the php-fpm, and it happens about 40~50min again. — yip, Nov 03 '17 at 12:08
@yip it is predefined functions of php and are always loaded when php is runned. Suggested option - remove php/server and reinstall. — , Nov 03 '17 at 12:12
What web server are you using? Nginx? Apache? What's the operating system? — Camilo, Nov 06 '17 at 02:31
@Camilo yes, with those extensions: dcode.so, eaccelerator.so, redis.so, xhprof.so — yip, Nov 06 '17 at 02:39
I would try disabling all extensions, then enabling one by one until I find the one causing the error. Also, add your PHP version to your question. — Camilo, Nov 06 '17 at 02:43
@Camilo thx to your suggestion, but it is hard to debug. Because the error I posted appears occasionally. — yip, Nov 06 '17 at 02:49
it appears to be your hosting provider problems , you need to contact them — Neji Soltani, Nov 06 '17 at 02:51
hi, please do a php -m, php --version and put it in the answer (to check the modules and version exactlly ) — User123456, Nov 06 '17 at 03:04
It's almost sure that there appeared some "hidden" problems on your servers, which produced this unexpected behavior. They can be multiple, inclusive something that you've done and forgot. The essential sign about it is that these functions (header(), time(), etc) are part of the core imolementation of the PHP engine, and they don't work anymore. php.net says for the network functions (inclusive header() function): "_There is no installation needed to use these functions; they are part of the PHP core_"... — , Nov 06 '17 at 03:08
So, I suggest you to upgrade the PHP to version 7+. I'm convinced that you have this opportunity. Good luck. — , Nov 06 '17 at 03:09
@aendeerei : https://github.com/perusio/drupal-with-nginx/issues/55 — User123456, Nov 06 '17 at 03:15
@yip : could you have a look at the above linnk as well. also check the logs (tail -600f /var/log/httpd/error_log) — User123456, Nov 06 '17 at 03:15
@yip : can you enable mod_php and disable PHP-FPM module and see your application is crashing ? — User123456, Nov 06 '17 at 04:55
What is your server specification in terms of RAM, CPU? Also how much CPU is usually free? Any chance your system got exposed to some malware recently? — Tarun Lalwani, Nov 06 '17 at 11:30

jaswrks · Answer 1 · 2017-11-09T16:57:49.620

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?

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. — hanshenrik, Nov 06 '17 at 11:15
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. — jaswrks, Nov 06 '17 at 11:24

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

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