"Dead catch" with assert() and AssertionError

[christianlerch]

Please take a look at this example: https://phpstan.org/r/9d7d8c45-b6b9-4e8b-8242-2d69f49604eb
Why does PHPStan not consider that assert() can throw \AssertionError? Is it because assertions are normally not enabled in production?

[staabm]

assert will only throw under certain php.ini settings. And the corresponding setting is even deprecated as of PHP8.3+

See https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.assert.php

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What are you trying to achieve with assert()? Its usually a bad idea to narrow stuff only in dev but not in production

[christianlerch]

I saw that the assert.exception setting has been deprecated, but its default value has also been changed from 0 to 1. So when the setting is removed, assert() will always throw an \AssertionError, right?

I am changing the behavior of a fundamental component of the project. It should now throw an exception if null is passed, but I don't want to break untested production code. And as assertions are only enabled in dev and CI, I am using them instead of throwing an exception directly. After some time (when I am sure that null isn't passed anymore), I will replace the assert() with an exception.

However, I just saw that instead of this

try {
    assert($value === null);
} catch (\AssertionError $e) {
    throw new CorrectException();
}

I could do it like that

assert($value === null, new CorrectException());

But I am still wondering about PHPStan's behavior in the example of my initial post.