Title: Weird bug? bufferStart vs. version 5?
Last modified: December 26, 2025

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# Weird bug? bufferStart vs. version 5?

 *  Resolved [jmslbam](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jmslbam/)
 * (@jmslbam)
 * [5 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-bug-bufferstart-vs-version-5/)
 * Servus Arno,
 * I encoutered a weird bug and would like to pick you brain. It started when I 
   had set WP_DEBUG to false. When on true, it doesnt occur. It is an combination
   of my stack which uses Twig via [https://github.com/level-level/Clarkson-Core/](https://github.com/level-level/Clarkson-Core/)
 * I have selected Version 5 btw as settings, while with version 4 this behaviour
   doesn’t occur.
   I disabled all plugins and enabled them to find the cullprit and
   this plugin trigger a White Screen of Death. So I tracked it to a combination
   of “bufferStart” and “outputFooter” methods. Disabling the “bufferStart” fixed
   it, but looking at the content I had a feeling that a `ob_start` without an “`
   ob_end_flush`” ever being called.And there in the outputFooter I saw the check
   if not version 4 then just return void.When I added a “ob_end_flush();” before
   that return it started working again.I think it’s an combination of the way the
   Twig rendering is implemented, on “template_include in combination an exit().
   So I understand that without the whole Clarkson / Twig rendering flow this bug
   would not occur, but am I correct that calling an “ob_end_flush” makes the code
   a bit more predictable compated to when you really on the “auto flush” of PHP
   when it finishes a loading a page? I solved it myself by adding and “ob_end_flush”
   on the wp_footer action, but let me know if you consider fixing it in the plugin
   yourself.Have a nice day!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Arno Welzel](https://wordpress.org/support/users/awelzel/)
 * (@awelzel)
 * [5 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-bug-bufferstart-vs-version-5/#post-18767794)
 * Thanks for pointing this out. Output buffer issues are sometimes hard to track
   down – but so far I never had an issue with PhotoSwipe 5, also see here:
 * [https://wordpress-demo.arnowelzel.de/lightbox-with-photoswipe-5/](https://wordpress-demo.arnowelzel.de/lightbox-with-photoswipe-5/)
 * [https://wordpress-demo.arnowelzel.de/lightbox-with-photoswipe-5-overlay-caption/](https://wordpress-demo.arnowelzel.de/lightbox-with-photoswipe-5-overlay-caption/)
 * However, while examinig `outputFooter()` I realized, that for PhotoSwipe 5 the
   method will not only suppress the output for the PhotoSwipe 4 specific frontend
   code – but it will also not run the output buffer flush if needed. While this
   works in most cases due to the fact, that PHP will flush the buffer anyway, it
   can cause issues if _other_ plugins or the theme don’t handle the output buffer
   correctly.
 * Version 5.8.2 contains a fix for this. If that version still does not work for
   you, you may have to check if any of the other plugins you use may also have 
   output buffer issues. Just calling `ob_end_flush()` without any additional checks
   is also not correct, since this may flush the output buffer of **another** plugin
   or theme which did not close it properly. My plugin does not always call `ob_start()`,
   but only if it was not disabled for the current page/post or by a filter hook.
 *  Plugin Author [Arno Welzel](https://wordpress.org/support/users/awelzel/)
 * (@awelzel)
 * [5 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-bug-bufferstart-vs-version-5/#post-18767813)
 * Oh – and another important thing:
 * Using Twig along with Composer and the generated autoloader by Composer in WordPress
   is usually also a bad idea, since you may end up with multiple autoloaders which
   can create a conflict with each other.
 * I tried using Twig for the backend in my plugin as well and very soon I removed
   that again, when I realized how many problems it causes due to the requirement
   of an autoloader for Twig. Your experiences may vary, but I would not recommend
   using Composer for any code in WordPress if you can not fully control every aspect
   of your WordPress installation including all plugins and theme(s). As soon as
   there is more than one plugin using Composer you will get serious issues at some
   point.
 * To see how to use Composer, see projects like RoundCube or any Symfony or Laravel
   based project since Composer was originally designed for Symfony and is also 
   used by Laravel.
 *  Thread Starter [jmslbam](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jmslbam/)
 * (@jmslbam)
 * [5 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-bug-bufferstart-vs-version-5/#post-18768208)
 * The fix worked, danke!
 * And yes, I’m aware of the possible issues that can occure with Composer in combination
   with other plugins that require same packages. Fortunatly Twig has not been a
   source of issues for the past 10.5 years that I have incorparated it in the front-
   end of WordPress sites.
 * And yes, myself as freelancer and while I worked at the agencies, we have had
   full control over all installed plugins in a Bedrock kinds of setup.
 * And I’m also aware of PHP Scoper or Mozart kind of solutions that would prevent
   issues you describe, although Clarkson Core is not being maintained anymore and
   I’m also stepping over to Timber. They indeed could incorparate such a custom
   namespaced Twig instead of loading it directly, but yeah.
 * Thank you for the heads-up and the quick fix!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [jmslbam](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jmslbam/)
 * Last activity: [5 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-bug-bufferstart-vs-version-5/#post-18768208)
 * Status: resolved