“Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed”

I’m trying to deploy WordPress on Dotcloud using this repo but there is an error that appears in the logs:

18:59:19: [www.0] Running postinstall script...
18:59:21: [www.0] PHP Fatal error:  Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed in /home/dotcloud/rsync-1353715101184/dotcloud-scripts/feed-wp-config.php on line 86

Looking at line 86 in feed-wp-config.php, it reads:

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$content = preg_replace('/(define('' . $property . '', ')(.*)(');)/', '${1}' . $value . '${3}', $content, -1, &$count);

When I go to the WordPress start page it says, “There doesn’t seem to be a wp-config.php file. I need this before we can get started.”

I’ve cross-posted this to the repo’s Github issue tracker, but as there hasn’t yet been a response I’m posting it here as well in hopes that someone knows the answer.

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2 comments

  1. Replace &$count with just $count. & meant you want variable to be passed by reference, not value:

    Documentation says

    There is no reference sign on a function call – only on function
    definitions. Function definitions alone are enough to correctly pass
    the argument by reference. As of PHP 5.3.0, you will get a warning
    saying that “call-time pass-by-reference” is deprecated when you use &
    in foo(&$a);.

    So if you want to pass variable by reference to the function, you should use & in function declaration:

    This now should be done that way:

    // right
    function foo(&$var) {
    ...
    }
    
    foo($foo);
    

    but not that way (as you get this warning):

    function foo($var) {
    ...
    }
    
    foo(&$foo);   // <--- wrong
    
  2. Remove the & sign from the &$count at the end of the line.

    Please bear in mind, that this is a core hack in wordpress, and it will be lost on an update..