$http_response_header Is Deprecated

The $http_response_header PHP variable is deprecated. It should be replaced with a call to http_get_last_response_headers(), which is available since PHP 8.4.

PHP code

<?php

function get_contents() {
  file_get_contents("https://www.php.net/");
  var_dump($http_response_header); // variable is populated in the local scope
}
get_contents();

?>

Before

array(13) {
  [0]=>
  string(15) "HTTP/1.1 200 OK"
  [1]=>
  string(17) "Server: myracloud"
  [2]=>
  string(35) "Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:16:26 GMT"
  [3]=>
  string(38) "Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8"
  [4]=>
  string(17) "Connection: close"
  [5]=>
  string(44) "Last-Modified: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:10:19 GMT"
  [6]=>
  string(20) "Content-language: en"
  [7]=>
  string(38) "Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=()"
  [8]=>
  string(27) "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"
  [9]=>
  string(114) "Set-Cookie: LAST_NEWS=1761156986; expires=Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:16:26 GMT; Max-Age=31536000; path=/; domain=.php.net"
  [10]=>
  string(47) "Link: <https://www.php.net/index>; rel=shorturl"
  [11]=>
  string(38) "Expires: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:16:26 GMT"
  [12]=>
  string(24) "Cache-Control: max-age=0"
}

After

PHP Deprecated:  The predefined locally scoped $http_response_header variable is deprecated, call http_get_last_response_headers() instead

Deprecated: The predefined locally scoped $http_response_header variable is deprecated, call http_get_last_response_headers() instead
array(13) {
  [0]=>
  string(15) "HTTP/1.1 200 OK"
  [1]=>
  string(17) "Server: myracloud"
  [2]=>
  string(35) "Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:16:26 GMT"
  [3]=>
  string(38) "Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8"
  [4]=>
  string(17) "Connection: close"
  [5]=>
  string(44) "Last-Modified: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:10:19 GMT"
  [6]=>
  string(20) "Content-language: en"
  [7]=>
  string(38) "Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=()"
  [8]=>
  string(27) "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"
  [9]=>
  string(114) "Set-Cookie: LAST_NEWS=1761156986; expires=Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:16:26 GMT; Max-Age=31536000; path=/; domain=.php.net"
  [10]=>
  string(47) "Link: <https://www.php.net/index>; rel=shorturl"
  [11]=>
  string(38) "Expires: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:16:26 GMT"
  [12]=>
  string(24) "Cache-Control: max-age=0"
}

PHP version change

This behavior changed in 8.5

Error Messages