How do you debug PHP scripts? [closed]

Question

How do you debug PHP scripts?

I am aware of basic debugging such as using the Error Reporting. The breakpoint debugging in PHPEclipse is also quite useful.

What is the best (in terms of fast and easy) way to debug in phpStorm or any other IDE?

Answer 1

XDebug is essential for development. I install it before any other extension. It gives you stack traces on any error and you can enable profiling easily.

For a quick look at a data structure use var_dump(). Don't use print_r() because you'll have to surround it with <pre> and it only prints one var at a time.

<?php var_dump(__FILE__, __LINE__, $_REQUEST); ?>

For a real debugging environment the best I've found is Komodo IDE but it costs $$.

Answer 2

I've used the Zend Studio (5.5), together with Zend Platform. That gives proper debugging, breakpoints/stepping over the code etc., although at a price.

Answer 3

Depending on the issue I like a combination of error_reporting(E_ALL) mixed with echo tests (to find the offending line/file the error happened in initally; you KNOW it's not always the line/file php tells you right?), IDE brace matching (to resolve "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end" issues), and print_r(); exit; dumps (real programmers view the source ;p).

You also can't beat phpdebug (check sourceforge) with "memory_get_usage();" and "memory_get_peak_usage();" to find the problem areas.

Answer 4

Komodo IDE works well with xdebug, even for the remore debugging. It needs minimum amount of configuration. All you need is a version of php that Komodo can use locally to step through the code on a breakpoint. If you have the script imported into komodo project, then you can set breakpoints with a mouse-click just how you would set it inside eclipse for debugging a java program. Remote debugging is obviously more tricky to get it to work correctly ( you might have to map the remote url with a php script in your workspace ) than a local debugging setup which is pretty easy to configure if you are on a MAC or a linux desktop.

Answer 5

1) I use print_r(). In TextMate, I have a snippet for 'pre' which expands to this:

echo "<pre>";
print_r();
echo "</pre>";

2) I use Xdebug, but haven't been able to get the GUI to work right on my Mac. It at least prints out a readable version of the stack trace.

Answer 6

I use Netbeans with XDebug. Check it out at its website for docs on how to configure it. http://php.netbeans.org/