{"id":1432,"date":"2026-10-13T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:05:11","slug":"php-8-2-needs-an-upgrade-plan-before-the-end-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/13\/php-8-2-needs-an-upgrade-plan-before-the-end-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP 8.2 Needs an Upgrade Plan Before the End of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHP 8.2 is approaching the end of its security support window on 31 December 2026. I would rather deal with that during an ordinary maintenance cycle than discover it while everyone is trying to finish work before Christmas. A supported runtime is a fairly basic requirement, even when the application itself has barely changed.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.php.net\/supported-versions.php\">official support table<\/a> distinguishes active support from security-only support. Those are different promises. Staying on a security-only branch can be a temporary choice, but it needs an end date and an owner. The absence of a recent bug in your application does not extend the runtime&#8217;s support window.<\/p>\n<p>I would start with the application&#8217;s actual dependencies: the framework, Composer packages, extensions and any deployment image. Pick a supported target that those components can use, then test the real application paths rather than only checking that PHP starts. Background jobs and command-line scripts deserve attention too; they are easy to forget when the website looks fine.<\/p>\n<p>An upgrade does not need to include every new language feature. Get the existing code running correctly first, ship that change, and tidy up separately if there is a useful reason. Runtime maintenance becomes much less dramatic when it is treated as regular work instead of an occasional rescue operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PHP 8.2 is approaching the end of its security support window on 31 December 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,13],"tags":[114,35,256],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-php","category-programming","tag-maintenance","tag-php","tag-php-8-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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