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Can the content filter regex backtracks be optimized?

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
30/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
php
Domain
performance

Research direction

No file or test is named. Start at the content-filter path that calls preg_replace_callback(), reproduce the failure with a roughly 518K JSON payload, and trace how the output buffer is processed. Done means large post_content values complete without missing output or unexplained errors.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

I have an edge-case scenario but wanted to suggest an improvement because it "could" affect users some day.

I am applying the content filter as an output buffer so that I can also convert non-https links outside of the post content. When applied to a 518K JSON payload, the preg_replace_callback() function fails. I could likely address this by modifying the pcre backtrack/recursion limits on my server.

Your users may trigger a similar edge case only if they have a large post_content field - unlikely, but remotely possible and a nasty gremlin to detect as there are no errors to explain the missing output.

I would submit a patch if/when I raise my regex game.

Dominant language
PHP
Stars
26
Forks
8
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

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