Ensure all modules are autoloaded with PSR-4 only if enabled

Created on 20 July 2015, almost 10 years ago

Updated 11 May 2025, 3 days ago

Problem/Motivation

1. D7 => D8 WTF - Using e.g. sites/all/modules/memcache/memcache.inc did just work, but the same with classes does not - until the module is enabled, which can be very problematic to deploy production changes. (How do you sync the settings.php change with the enabling of the module without the site WSOD'ing in between?)

2. In a composer enabled world the expectation is that modules have a composer.json, which specifies the folders to autoload, which is then automatically loaded. Once a module starts using autoload: psr-4: { 'Drupal\\my_module\\': 'src/'} we get a huge behavior change for a disabled vs. an enabled module when that module is managed by composer or not.

3. Small DX problems, e.g. to override the container class with one from a module, explicitly the autoloader has to be used to addPsr4() for the module.

Proposed resolution

- Always load PSR-4 for all available modules.

This is a step in transitioning us to a static composer world - as the rest of the PHP world already uses.

Remaining tasks

- Discuss
- Create patch

User interface changes

- None

API changes

- Behavior change: Modules src/ directory classes are always available in the autoloader.
- Composer managed modules can add autoload: psr-4 safely as there is no change in behavior.

Data model changes

- None

📌 Task

Status

Active

Version

11.0 🔥

Component

base system

Created by

🇩🇪Germany Fabianx

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Incomplete comments

Comments & Activities

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Comment 3 days ago →
🇦🇺Australia dpi Perth, Australia
Time has passed, new perspectives and such.

Following on a suggestion and discussion @ #3522410-11: Using instances of classes defined by modules in service container parameters causes fatal errors →

What if we did the inverse to what is currently proposed here, back to the original intent of the ticket before direction change in #2536610-6: Ensure all modules are autoloaded with PSR-4 only if enabled →

Always have all modules available in autoloader.

Then, the concept of "installed" means whether a modules hooks/services/discovery/plugins etc etc is loaded.

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