wppaste
WordPress

trackback( string $trackback_url, string $title, string $excerpt, int $post_id ): int|false|void

Since
0.71
Source
wp-includes/comment.php:3318
Sends a Trackback.

Description

Updates database when sending trackback to prevent duplicates.

Compatibility

WordPress
since 0.71
PHP
7.4–8.6-dev
  • 6.7.7
  • 6.8.8
  • 6.9.7
  • 7.0.4
  • 7.1.0

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Parameters

$trackback_urlstring
URL to send trackbacks.
$titlestring
Title of post.
$excerptstring
Excerpt of post.
$post_idint
Post ID.

Return value

int|false|void
Database query from update.

Performance profile

How much work a call to trackback() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.

Cost class
Expensive

Reaches an outbound HTTP request via wp_safe_remote_post().

Scaling
Constant

No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.

Instructions
8–54

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 56.

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
2

2 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What it touches

  • optionoption read or writeget_option()called directly
  • httpoutbound HTTP requestwp_safe_remote_post()called directly
  • sqldatabase query->query()called directly
  • querycontent queryget_post()one call below trackback()
  • hookthird-party callbacksapply_filters()one call below trackback()
  • cacheobject cachewp_cache_get()one call below trackback()
  • serializeserialisationmaybe_unserialize()one call below trackback()

Further down the call graph this can also reach transient. That is the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.

What one call costs · 3 distinct outcomes

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost trackback() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
empty($trackback_url)8none
!empty($trackback_url) && is_wp_error()30get_permalink(), get_option(), wp_safe_remote_post(), is_wp_error()
!empty($trackback_url) && !is_wp_error()54get_permalink(), get_option(), wp_safe_remote_post(), is_wp_error(), ->prepare(), ->query(), ->prepare(), ->query()

Across PHP versions

Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 56 instructions, 8–54 executed per call, 2 branches. The work does not change between versions.

An instruction is not a fixed amount of time, so a matching count is not necessarily the same speed; what it rules out is a difference in the work itself.

Uses · 4

Used by · 2

Source code

function trackback( $trackback_url, $title, $excerpt, $post_id ) {	global $wpdb; 	if ( empty( $trackback_url ) ) {		return;	} 	$options            = array();	$options['timeout'] = 10;	$options['body']    = array(		'title'     => $title,		'url'       => get_permalink( $post_id ),		'blog_name' => get_option( 'blogname' ),		'excerpt'   => $excerpt,	); 	$response = wp_safe_remote_post( $trackback_url, $options ); 	if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {		return;	} 	$wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare( "UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET pinged = CONCAT(pinged, '\n', %s) WHERE ID = %d", $trackback_url, $post_id ) );	return $wpdb->query( $wpdb->prepare( "UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET to_ping = TRIM(REPLACE(to_ping, %s, '')) WHERE ID = %d", $trackback_url, $post_id ) );}

Changelog

Introduced in 0.71. One change between 6.7.7 and 7.1.0.

  1. 6.7.7
  2. 6.8.8
  3. 6.9.7
  4. 7.0.4
  5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

7.1.0
Return type changed from int|false|void to int|false|null.verified against source
0.71
Introduced.from the docblock

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.0.4 tag, from src/wp-includes/comment.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
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