phar-io/manifest · error · ManifestDocumentException

$t->getMessage()

Error message

$t->getMessage()

What it means

ManifestDocument::fromString wraps any Throwable raised while loading the XML string into a ManifestDocumentException whose message is the underlying exception's message (in PHP, DOMDocument::loadXML emits a warning/notice rather than throwing, so this catch rarely fires; the message is whatever the native DOM/libxml layer threw). It signals that the string could not be turned into a DOMDocument. The library re-throws with code 0 and the original as previous exception.

Solutions

1. Print the previous exception via $e->getPrevious() to see the underlying libxml/DOM error
2. Verify the input string is non-empty and well-formed XML before calling fromString
3. Ensure the file was read successfully (check file_get_contents return value !== false)
4. Use fromFile() instead of manually reading then fromString()

Example fix

// before
$doc = ManifestDocument::fromString(file_get_contents($path));
// after
$content = file_get_contents($path);
if ($content === false || trim($content) === '') {
    throw new RuntimeException("Manifest file $path unreadable or empty");
}
$doc = ManifestDocument::fromString($content);

if (!is_string($xml) || trim($xml) === '') { throw new InvalidArgumentException('Manifest XML string is empty'); }

function isNonEmptyString($v): bool { return is_string($v) && trim($v) !== ''; }

try { $doc = ManifestDocument::fromString($xml); } catch (ManifestDocumentException $e) { $cause = $e->getPrevious(); log_error($cause ? $cause->getMessage() : $e->getMessage()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ManifestDocument::fromString() with input that makes DOMDocument construction/loading throw — e.g. an empty string passed to loadXML, or a PHP level failure inside the try block. Note empty input typically surfaces as libxml errors -> ManifestDocumentLoadingException instead; this catch handles Throwable cases.

Common situations: Passing null/empty output from file_get_contents to fromString because the manifest file path was wrong; feeding non-XML content (HTML, binary, truncated download); encoding problems in the manifest string.

Related errors

• Processing string failed
• Not a phar.io manifest document
• Element missing
• Attribute not set on element
• Element missing

AI-assisted analysis of phar-io/manifest@c581d4941e (2026-09-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e3993bf6adc1bde8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/xml/ManifestDocument.php:52

            );
        }

        return self::fromString(
            file_get_contents($filename)
        );
    }

    public static function fromString(string $xmlString): ManifestDocument {
        $prev = libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
        libxml_clear_errors();

        try {
            $dom = new DOMDocument();
            $dom->loadXML($xmlString);
            $errors = libxml_get_errors();
            libxml_use_internal_errors($prev);
        } catch (Throwable $t) {
            throw new ManifestDocumentException($t->getMessage(), 0, $t);
        }

        if (count($errors) !== 0) {
            throw new ManifestDocumentLoadingException($errors);
        }

        return new self($dom);
    }

    private function __construct(DOMDocument $dom) {
        $this->ensureCorrectDocumentType($dom);

        $this->dom = $dom;
    }

    public function getContainsElement(): ContainsElement {
        return new ContainsElement(
            $this->fetchElementByName('contains')

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