Well, var_export() is almost meaningless for objects since it gives you the internal representation by "class fubar ..." however in a runnning system a class can be defined only once - so the usage of var_export() with objects is quite limited. Additionally circular references are hardly handled by most of the PHP functions and even by the core (see PHP5 which currently does not destruct objects if there is a circular reference).
However moving that to bug, since var_export() should fail if some of the member variables is an object itself.

Nah, it's not a bug. Just don't do it

I don't think it is a bug, neither I think it could be hard to implement. I can't make a test right now, because I?m not connected using my PC; but I think that such a behavior could be easily simulated using the get_class_vars and get_parent_class functions - but it'd be less eficient than if done in the var_export function (C code and compiled).

I promise once I get home I will write a php function to simulated the expected behaviour.

Notice I don't expect to get the class definition, but that every class have been already defined.

Regards,
Manu.

As I promised *long ago*, here is a small function that implements the idea. Notice, I left circular reference loops unchecked, though it is not hard to add this check. I did this in part, because any way I wasn't changing the very var_export function :)
Again, notice I do not expect the class definition.

Test code:
<?php

function obj_var_export($obj)
{
    //  TODO:   Maintain a global list of references and fix-ups
    //      to avoid forever-loops when circular references 
    //      are found.
    
    if (is_object($obj))
    {
        $classn = get_class($obj);
        $result = "with (new $classn())\n{\n";
        $vars = get_object_vars($obj);
        foreach($vars as $n => $v)
            $result .= "\$$n = ".obj_var_export($v)."\n";
        $result .= "}\n";
        return $result;            
    }
    else
        //  var_export would be modified in order that any component
        //  of obj is an object (e.g an array containing objects)
        return var_export($obj, true).";";  
}

class VE_Test
{
    var $child;
    var $str = "hi!";
}

$ve_child = new VE_Test();
$ve_child->child = NULL;

$ve_parent = new VE_Test();
$ve_parent->child = &$ve_child;

echo obj_var_export($ve_parent);
echo "<br/><br/>";
echo var_export($ve_parent);
?>