When do we drop PHP 8.0 support?

Dropping PHP 8.0 in v4.4 is proposed.
https://github.com/codeigniter4/CodeIgni...ssues/7320

What do you think?

The facts:
- v4.3.x still supports PHP 7.4, but PHP 7.4 is not maintained any more. So if you use PHP 7.4, you hold the risk.
- v4.4 is the next minor version and it is not decided when to be released.
- PHP 8.0 will be end of life on 26 Nov 2023.

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Personally i would skip version 8.0 and push everyone to the latest version.
But I can imagine there are packages who rely on 8.0 from previous releases within CI4 projects.

The framework does not have LTS versions, as well as a clear release cycle.
Even now, the team does not know when 4.4 will be released.
That is, we cannot even orient the releases of the framework with the php maintenance cycle.

Tell me, why is the php 7.4 version still supported by the framework, considering that 4.3 was almost 2 months after the end of php 7.4 mainteining?
By answering this question you will get an answer on when to stop supporting 8.0

Fine with me, we used the overlap between 7.4 and 8.1 and jumped to 8.1. As 8.0 is currently in service-mode-only why bother supporting it for about 6 months?
This has been discussed before, but maybe it's time to move to CI 5.0 with PHP 8.1+ as supported version. This would keep version 4 for backward compatibility and serious bug-fixes.

Tell me, why is the php 7.4 version still supported by the framework, considering that 4.3 was almost 2 months after the end of php 7.4 mainteining?

The answer is because many users were using PHP 7.4 at that time.

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Fine with me, we used the overlap between 7.4 and 8.1 and jumped to 8.1. As 8.0 is currently in service-mode-only why bother supporting it for about 6 months?
This has been discussed before, but maybe it's time to move to CI 5.0 with PHP 8.1+ as supported version. This would keep version 4 for backward compatibility and serious bug-fixes.

Considering how much changes were postponed for the 5th version and the release cycle, then it will be released at the end of the life of php8.2 =)

Considering how much changes were postponed for the 5th version and the release cycle, then it will be released at the end of the life of php8.2 =)

Yeah, the PHP devs have been getting more and more aggressive in the last years.

The answer is because many users were using PHP 7.4 at that time.

May I ask where these statistics come from?

https://packagist.org/packages/codeignit.../php-stats

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But I can imagine there are packages who rely on 8.0 from previous releases within CI4 projects.

Those can still use the 4.3 Branch.

[...] maybe it's time to move to CI 5.0 with PHP 8.1+ as supported version. This would keep version 4 for backward compatibility and serious bug-fixes.

Since CI handles its breaking changes at the minor, the CI 4.3 branch could easily be used for backward compatibility and serious bug-fixes.
CI major versions seem to be reserved for major framework upgrades (see CI3 vs CI4)

In my opinion, we should drop all but the current PHP version (8.2) for every new minor branch, since those new minor branches always mean breaking changes.
This would allow us to go forward with the pace of PHP and not limp behind trying to support deprecated PHP versions.

People who can't upgrade to a new PHP Version could still use all upgrades in their respective minor branch.
If they need features from a higher minor branch they need to upgrade their PHP version.
This seems to be a fair deal to me.