# symfony/polyfill-php56

This component provides functions unavailable in releases prior to PHP 5.6.

Repository: https://github.com/symfony/polyfill-php56
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/polyfill-php56
Homepage: https://symfony.com/polyfill-php56
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: php, symfony, polyfill, component, symfony-component
Last push: 2023-08-02T10:25:46+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3968, "days_push": 1127, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1556, forks 2 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:03.194898+00:00)

## What it is
A Symfony polyfill component that backports PHP 5.6 functions (hash_equals and ldap_escape) to older PHP releases. It lets code written against PHP 5.6+ APIs run on earlier PHP versions.

## Use cases
- run code using hash_equals on PHP older than 5.6
- use ldap_escape on legacy PHP versions
- make a library compatible across PHP 5.x versions
- avoid version-conditional function checks in PHP code
- support legacy PHP deployments with modern function APIs

## When to choose
- you maintain a library that must support PHP versions below 5.6
- your code calls hash_equals or ldap_escape but runs on older PHP
- you want a drop-in, MIT-licensed compatibility shim

## When to avoid
- your project already requires PHP 5.6 or newer
- you only target modern PHP versions where the functions exist natively

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: sdk, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages, cross-platform
- platform: php, cli
- tags: polyfill, php-5-6, compatibility-shim, symfony-component, hash-equals, ldap-escape

## Member repositories
- symfony/polyfill-php56 (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:03.194898+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:29:59.918316+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/symfony/polyfill-php56 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:03.194898+00:00, sha b4a7ebc31c1b)
  - homepage: https://symfony.com/polyfill-php56 (fetched 2026-08-29T11:30:26.184116+00:00, sha 1ada2df317d1)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/doc (fetched 2026-08-29T11:30:26.192886+00:00, sha 44889134f4fb)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T11:30:26.194836+00:00, sha 429432437be6)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/blog/category/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T11:30:26.196643+00:00, sha 67d57e8c6560)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.