Namespace Autoload works under windows, but not on Linux

Question

I have the following php code:

index.php

<?php
spl_autoload_extensions(".php");
spl_autoload_register();

use modules\standard as std;

$handler = new std\handler();
$handler->delegate();
?>

modules\standard\handler.php

<?php
namespace modules\standard {
    class handler {
        function delegate(){
            echo 'Hello from delegation!';
        }
    }
}
?>

Under Windows 7, running WAMP, the code produces the message "Hello from Delegation!" however under Linux, I get the following:

Fatal error: spl_autoload(): Class modules\standard\handler could not be loaded in /var/www/index.php on line 15

Windows is running PHP 5.3.0 under WAMP, and Linux is running the 5.3.2 dotdeb package under Ubuntu 9.10.

Is this a configuration issue on my linux box, or just a difference in the way namespaces and autoloading is handled on the different operating systems

Answer 1

The SPL autoloader is extremely primitive - it has no knowledge of namespaces, so it tries to load a file with \ in it's name while on Linux/Unix the path separator is / not .

Answer 2

Herman Radtke says he has submitted a patch :

http://www.hermanradtke.com/blog/hidden-features-with-spl_autoload-and-namespaces/

:s

I'm hoping it'll be implemented soon.

For now I use this workaround :

<?php
set_include_path( './classes/' . PATH_SEPARATOR . get_include_path() );
spl_autoload_extensions( '.php , .class.php' );
spl_autoload_register();
function linux_namespaces_autoload ( $class_name )
    {
        /* use if you need to lowercase first char *
        $class_name  =  implode( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR , array_map( 'lcfirst' , explode( '\\' , $class_name ) ) );/* else just use the following : */
        $class_name  =  implode( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR , explode( '\\' , $class_name ) );
        static $extensions  =  array();
        if ( empty($extensions ) )
            {
                $extensions  =  array_map( 'trim' , explode( ',' , spl_autoload_extensions() ) );
            }
        static $include_paths  =  array();
        if ( empty( $include_paths ) )
            {
                $include_paths  =  explode( PATH_SEPARATOR , get_include_path() );
            }
        foreach ( $include_paths as $path )
            {
                $path .=  ( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR !== $path[ strlen( $path ) - 1 ] ) ? DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR : '';
                foreach ( $extensions as $extension )
                    {
                        $file  =  $path . $class_name . $extension;
                        if ( file_exists( $file ) && is_readable( $file ) )
                            {
                                require $file;
                                return;
                            }
                    }
            }
        throw new Exception( _( 'class ' . $class_name . ' could not be found.' ) );
    }
spl_autoload_register( 'linux_namespaces_autoload' , TRUE , FALSE );
?>