Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

\\t has a special meaning in strings with double quotes.

What are you talking about? Writing write code once, run everywhere? This is currently not possible and therefor this is for sure a bug.

Rename is not working the same way on all OS'es and this is why i filed this bug. I don't like to workaround in a shit way like described in http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.rename.php#56576. This one produces a PHP error that is logged in my CMS.

So let's fix this to make PHP work in the same way on all OS without dirty hacks. You may fix this in the way of #56576 PHP *internally*, but don't make me to hack around outside and create crappy code around.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.double

This doesn't have anything to do with double quotes. With single quotes this isn't working, too.

<?php
rename('C:\temp\tmp_file.txt.new', 'C:\temp\tmp_file.txt');
?>

Please escape the \ as advised in the manual.

As already said, this won't help anything.

DON'T WORK:
<?php
rename('C:\temp\tmp_file.txt.new', 'C:\temp\tmp_file.txt');
?>

Error:
PHP Warning:  rename(C:\temp\tmp_file.txt.new,C:\temp\tmp_file.txt): File exists in C:\Temp\rename-test.php on line 2

DON'T WORK:
<?php
rename('C:\\temp\\tmp_file.txt.new', 'C:\\temp\\tmp_file.txt');
?>

Error:
PHP Warning:  rename(C:\temp\tmp_file.txt.new,C:\temp\tmp_file.txt): File exists in C:\Temp\rename-test.php on line 2

DON'T WORK:
<?php
rename("C:\\temp\\tmp_file.txt.new", "C:\\temp\\tmp_file.txt");
?>

Error:
PHP Warning:  rename(C:\temp\tmp_file.txt.new,C:\temp\tmp_file.txt): File exists in C:\Temp\rename-test.php on line 2

DON'T WORK:
<?php
rename("C:/temp/tmp_file.txt.new", "C:/temp/tmp_file.txt");
?>

Error:
PHP Warning:  rename(C:/temp/tmp_file.txt.new,C:/temp/tmp_file.txt): File exists in C:\Temp\rename-test.php on line 2


So you have a Windows Box next to you? Before answering, test yourself if you don't trust me, but don't close this case until this bug has been fixed! THX.

Please open a dictionary and translate the error message:
PHP Warning:  rename(C:\temp\tmp_file.txt.new,C:\temp\tmp_file.txt):
****File exists**** in C:\Temp\rename-test.php on line 2

It says FILE EXISTS, don't you see it?
Please do NOT reopen the report again.
Thank you.

Do you know how this works on *nix systems?

Well i will tell you - it will *move* the "new file" over the "old file" in an atomic rename. This is what PHP needs to handle on Windows, too. I don't need any extras on *nix to rename. And PHP internal command should work platform independent. 

This bug should be fixed to make sure the code runs on windows in the *same way* as it does on *nix systems.

What is so difficult to understand about this? Writing write code once, *run everywhere* is not possible with this bug.

I actually agree with that... however, it's not possible to do this atomically on windows if the file you're moving to exists. The only option is to unlink() the target and then do the rename() but that leaves a race condition. I don't think that is solvable on Windows.

Well, if this rename is not possible atomically (how bad this ever is), i think PHP should handle the copy/unlink logic in background if i use "rename()".

I simply don't like to think about possible platform dependencies (i don't know anything about) and hack around in a bad way that additional produce an error with "E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE" i cannot circumvent.

rename should be remake to copy + unlink to keep php do the same behavior on windows & *nix

This issue is solved since PHP 5.3.0 (released 2009-06-30). 
rename() works atomic on Windows due to the use of 
MoveFileEx(..., ..., MOVEFILE_REPLACE_EXISTING) 
(see virtual_rename() in TSRM/tsrm_virtual_cwd.c 
resp. VCWD_RENAME() in TSRM/tsrm_virtual.cwd.h).

So this issue can be closed.