Test Script (stripped down win32/build/mkdist.php):
<?php 

// FYI: nmake snap runs mkdist.php with these args
//
// c:\php-sdk\git\php-src>C:\php-sdk\git\obj\Release\php.exe -d date.timezone=UTC -n -dphar.readonly=0 win32/build/mkdist.php "C:\php-sdk\git\obj\Release" "C:\php-sdk\git\php-src\no" "php5.dll" "php-cgi.exe php.exe php-win.exe php5embed.lib" "php_mbstring.dll php_shmop.dll php_sockets.dll php_sqlite3.dll php_exif.dll php_pdo_mysql.dll php_pdo_odbc.dll php_pdo_sqlite.dll " " " "no"

// php build directory
$build_dir = "C:\php-sdk\git\obj\Release";

$dist_dir = $build_dir . "/php-" . phpversion();
$test_dir = $build_dir . "/php-test-pack-" . phpversion();
$pecl_dir = $build_dir . "/pecl-" . phpversion();

@mkdir($dist_dir);
@mkdir("$dist_dir/ext");
@mkdir("$dist_dir/dev");
@mkdir("$dist_dir/extras");
@mkdir($pecl_dir);


function make_phar_dot_phar($dist_dir)
{
	if (!extension_loaded('phar')) {
		return;
	}

	$path_to_phar = realpath(__DIR__ . '/../../ext/phar');

	echo "Generating pharcommand.phar\n";
	$phar = new Phar($dist_dir . '/pharcommand.phar', 0, 'pharcommand');

	foreach (new DirectoryIterator($path_to_phar . '/phar') as $file) {
		if ($file->isDir() || $file == 'phar.php') {
			continue;
		}

		echo 'adding ', $file, "\n";
		$phar[(string) $file] = file_get_contents($path_to_phar.  '/phar/' . $file);
	}

	$phar->setSignatureAlgorithm(Phar::SHA1);
	$stub = file($path_to_phar . '/phar/phar.php');

	unset($stub[0]); // remove hashbang
	$phar->setStub(implode('', $stub));

	echo "Creating phar.phar.bat\n";
	file_put_contents($dist_dir . '/phar.phar.bat', "%~dp0php.exe %~dp0pharcommand.phar %*\r\n");
}


make_phar_dot_phar($dist_dir);
?>

looks like it fails on the first call to file_get_contents() in make_phar_dot_phar().

the first and only arg to file_get_contents() is "c:\php-sdk\git\php-src\ext\phar\phar\clicommand.inc".

Happens to me with 5.4 branch too. If I remove make_phar_dot_phar(), it does not 
happen, so definitely has something to do with phar.

This commandline reliably reproduces it:


Release\php.exe -d date.timezone=UTC -n -dphar.readonly=0 win32/build/mkdist.php 
Release C:\Projects\win32build php5.dll php-cgi.exe php.exe php_intl.dll 
php_pdo_mysql.dll    no

With proper quotes:


Release\php.exe -d date.timezone=UTC -n -dphar.readonly=0 win32/build/mkdist.php 
"Release" "C:\Projects\win32build" "php5.dll" "php-cgi.exe php.exe" "php_intl.dll 
php_pdo_mysql.dll " " " "no"

git bisect says commit 714f1ff4b37c5101b3c61ea108a3d415f41e50df is to blame. 
Reverting it seems to fix the issue.

This bug has been fixed in SVN.

Snapshots of the sources are packaged every three hours; this change
will be in the next snapshot. You can grab the snapshot at
http://snaps.php.net/.

 For Windows:

http://windows.php.net/snapshots/
 
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.

Should be fine now.