Learn how to fix “Only variable references should be returned by reference – Codeigniter”

By admin|Computer, PHP

After the server PHP upgrade, getting the following error with PHP Version 5.6.2 on Apache 2.0

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice
Message: Only variable references should be returned by reference
Filename: core/Common.php
Line Number: 257

To fix this issue

Edit filename: core/Common.php, line number: 257

Before:

return $_config[0] =& $config; 

After:

$_config[0] =& $config;
return $_config[0];

But, It’s better to upgrade rather than modifying core framework files.

This fix has been merged into CI 2.2.1

https://github.com/bcit-ci/CodeIgniter/commit/69b02d0f0bc46e914bed1604cfbd9bf74286b2e3