static function autoload( $className ) {
global $wgAutoloadClasses, $wgAutoloadLocalClasses;
+ // Workaround for PHP bug <https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49143> (5.3.2. is broken, it's fixed in 5.3.6).
+ // Strip leading backslashes from class names. When namespaces are used, leading backslashes are used to indicate
+ // the top-level namespace, e.g. \foo\Bar. When used like this in the code, the leading backslash isn't passed to
+ // the auto-loader ($className would be 'foo\Bar'). However, if a class is accessed using a string instead of a
+ // class literal (e.g. $class = '\foo\Bar'; new $class()), then some versions of PHP do not strip the leading
+ // backlash in this case, causing autoloading to fail.
+ $className = ltrim( $className, '\\' );
+
if ( isset( $wgAutoloadLocalClasses[$className] ) ) {
$filename = $wgAutoloadLocalClasses[$className];
} elseif ( isset( $wgAutoloadClasses[$className] ) ) {