Bug: Unhandled False in FileHandler

[whiskey-coder]

PHP Version

8.3, 8.2

CodeIgniter4 Version

4.6.0

CodeIgniter4 Installation Method

Composer (using codeigniter4/appstarter)

Which operating systems have you tested for this bug?

Linux

Which server did you use?

fpm-fcgi

Database

PostgreSQL 15

What happened?

In system/Cache/Handlers/FileHandler.php, inside the getItem() method, the call to file_get_contents() can return false, which currently leads to a fatal error that crashes the application without any explanatory message. It would be preferable to:

Detect when file_get_contents() returns false.
In that case, ignore the cached file and regenerate the cache entry.
Emit a clear warning to the console indicating that reading the cache failed, so developers aren’t left with a silent crash.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Make cache unreadable (for example, no permissions)
2. Try to get it

Expected Output

Warning or error in console, no crash, recalculate of cache

Anything else?

No response

[michalsn]

which currently leads to a fatal error that crashes the application without any explanatory message

That statement is incorrect - the code doesn't crash. It uses @unserialize(...) and returns false if the result isn't an array, so any issues (like unreadable files or invalid data) fail silently rather than causing a fatal error.

Also, in what scenario would the files lack proper permissions? They were created by the application in the first place.

[whiskey-coder]

In CLI

[TypeError]
unserialize(): Argument #1 ($data) must be of type string, bool given
at SYSTEMPATH/Cache/Handlers/FileHandler.php:228

Backtrace:
1 SYSTEMPATH/Cache/Handlers/FileHandler.php:228
unserialize(false)

2 SYSTEMPATH/Cache/Handlers/FileHandler.php:81
CodeIgniter\Cache\Handlers\FileHandler()->getItem('TESTCACHE')

Just make unavailable to read

[michalsn]

Ok, thank you for the follow-up. You're right, I forgot that suppressing errors like this no longer works in PHP 8+. I will send a fix later.