Deprecated backtick operator with shell_exec() for PHP 8.5

[lacatoire]

This PR replaces the use of the backtick operator (`cmd`), which is officially deprecated as of PHP 8.5.

Reference:

• RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_8_5
• php/php-src@3d9d68e

The affected calls fetch Git metadata during the build process. Using shell_exec() is semantically identical and avoids E_DEPRECATED notices on PHP 8.5.

Behavior and output remain unchanged. Tested with PHP 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5.

[alfsb]

Missed one backtick on line 590.

But as you are at it, the code between 578-600 is about to be deleted. It was written to debug a strange situation where GitHub CI is giving different results before and after merging. In the end, GitHub CI never guarantees the same result before/after merging, because CI ignores changes on master by default.

I wrote it, you can delete it.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the configure.php file to replace deprecated backtick operators with shell_exec() calls in preparation for PHP 8.5, where the backtick operator is officially deprecated. The changes affect git command executions that fetch repository metadata during the build process.

Key Changes:

• Replaced three backtick operator usages with shell_exec() calls on lines 593-595
• Updated quote escaping for git format string to use escaped double quotes

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[alfsb]

Tested on Linux and Windows. Appears to be ok. Let's give a few weeks for possible other reviews.

[lacatoire]

Thanks @alfsb!
Since this PR only targets the PHP 8.5 fix, I’ll leave the code as-is.
The cleanup of that block can be handled separately.

[alfsb]

I'm retracting what I said about deleting this code. It was useful literally yesterday for solving another problem. So, even though it didn't fulfill its original purpose, it still has uses.

After the merge, I'll just tidy it up and simplify it, but it will basically be kept.