wp_get_development_mode(): string
- Since
- 6.3.0
- Source
wp-includes/load.php:322
Description
The development mode affects how certain parts of the WordPress application behave, which is relevant when developing for WordPress.
Development mode can be set via the WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE constant in wp-config.php.
Possible values are 'core', 'plugin', 'theme', 'all', or an empty string to disable development mode. 'all' is a special value to signify that all three development modes ('core', 'plugin', and 'theme') are enabled.
Development mode is considered separately from WP_DEBUG and wp_get_environment_type().
It does not affect debugging output, but rather functional nuances in WordPress.
This function retrieves the currently set development mode value. To check whether a specific development mode is enabled, use wp_is_development_mode().
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 6.3.0
- 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.
Return value
string- The current development mode.
Performance profile
How much work a call to wp_get_development_mode() 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
- Trivial
- Scaling
- Constant
- Instructions
- 6–17
- Plugin surface
- None
- Called by
- 2
Touches nothing outside its own arguments.
No loop in the body: the same number of instructions runs whatever you pass in.
Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 18.
Nothing here hands control to plugin code.
2 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What one call costs · 1 distinct outcome
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost wp_get_development_mode() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
| always | 6–17 | none |
Across PHP versions
| PHP | Compiled | Executed | Branches | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.6-dev | 18 | 6–17 | 5 | |
| 8.5 | 18 | 6–17 | 5 | |
| 8.4 | 18 | 6–17 | 5 | |
| 8.3 | 18 | 6–17 | 5 | |
| 8.2 | 18 | 6–17 | 5 | |
| 8.1 | 18 | 6–17 | 5 | 2 fewer instructions than PHP 7.4 |
| 7.4 | 20 | 6–19 | 5 |
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.
Used by · 2
- wp_initial_constants()Defines initial WordPress constants.
- wp_is_development_mode()Checks whether the site is in the given development mode.
Source code
function wp_get_development_mode() { static $current_mode = null; if ( ! defined( 'WP_RUN_CORE_TESTS' ) && null !== $current_mode ) { return $current_mode; } $development_mode = WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE; // Exclusively for core tests, rely on the `$_wp_tests_development_mode` global. if ( defined( 'WP_RUN_CORE_TESTS' ) && isset( $GLOBALS['_wp_tests_development_mode'] ) ) { $development_mode = $GLOBALS['_wp_tests_development_mode']; } $valid_modes = array( 'core', 'plugin', 'theme', 'all', '', ); if ( ! in_array( $development_mode, $valid_modes, true ) ) { $development_mode = ''; } $current_mode = $development_mode; return $current_mode;}Changelog
Introduced in 6.3.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.
Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.
About this page
- Parsed data
- Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.1.0 tag, from
src/wp-includes/load.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it. - Corrections
- Something wrong on this page? Report it and it gets fixed in the next regeneration.