wp_protect_special_option( string $option )
- Since
- 2.2.0
- Source
wp-includes/option.php:557
Description
Will die if $option is in protected list. Protected options are 'alloptions' and 'notoptions' options.
Compatibility
- WordPress
- since 2.2.0
- 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.
Parameters
$optionstring- Option name.
Performance profile
How much work a call to wp_protect_special_option() 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
- 6–19
- Plugin surface
- None
- Called by
- 6
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 19.
Nothing here hands control to plugin code.
6 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.
What it touches
- hookthird-party callbacks
apply_filters()one call below wp_protect_special_option()
Further down the call graph this can also reach option, cache, serialize, query and transient. Those are the worst case, several calls deep and usually down an error path, not what a normal call pays.
What one call costs · 2 distinct outcomes
One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost wp_protect_special_option() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.
| When | Instructions | Calls it makes |
|---|---|---|
$option !== "alloptions" && $option !== "notoptions" | 6 | none |
| always | 17–19 | __(), esc_html(), sprintf(), wp_die() |
Across PHP versions
Compiles the same on PHP 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.6-dev: 19 instructions, 6–19 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 · 3
- wp_die()Kills WordPress execution and displays HTML page with an error message.
- __()Retrieves the translation of $text.
- esc_html()Escaping for HTML blocks.
Used by · 6
- add_network_option()Adds a new network option.
- add_option()Adds a new option.
- delete_option()Removes an option by name. Prevents removal of protected WordPress options.
- update_network_option()Updates the value of a network option that was already added.
- update_option()Updates the value of an option that was already added.
- wp_set_option_autoload_values()Sets the autoload values for multiple options in the database.
Source code
function wp_protect_special_option( $option ) { if ( 'alloptions' === $option || 'notoptions' === $option ) { wp_die( sprintf( /* translators: %s: Option name. */ __( '%s is a protected WP option and may not be modified' ), esc_html( $option ) ) ); }}Changelog
Introduced in 2.2.0. One change between 6.7.7 and 7.1.0.
Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.
none to void.verified against sourceAbout this page
- Parsed data
- Generated from the wordpress-develop 6.7.7 tag, from
src/wp-includes/option.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.