php command line debugging using xdebug

Question

I am new to xdebug and would like to know if this is possible to debug a php script from Windows command line (applying breakpoints). I have gone through various examples of using xdebug but all they talk about debugging through IDE (Eclipse or Netbeans).

So i am wondering if this is possible to debug scripts using command line (Windows). If this is possible then can someone provide link/URL that provides step by step guidance to achieve this?

• arkascha: Just out of interest: why would one want to do that? Even if you succeed in manually handling the protocol, that would be a really really tough task. Following such debug conversation is more than just a few commands. BTW: kdevelop with its php plugin contains an excellent frontend to xdebug. Just to mention a further alternative.

Answer 1

The xdebug project page mentions some client implementations, it mentions:

Xdebug 2 is bundled with a simple command line client for the DBGp protocol.

Did you try that one?

• Neeraj: Thanks for your suggestion but i didn't try any client (either bundled or can be installed separately) so far but was just trying to find a way to debug through command line standalone. If this is the only option then i will surely use something like that
• arkascha: Sorry, can't follow there... what is mentioned above is a command line client.
• Neeraj: If i am using php 5.3.x and just set xdebug properties in php.ini then after that what will i have to do to access that command line client.
• arkascha: Take a look at this reply: stackoverflow.com/questions/13284795/… It uses Linux (as most people here do), but you should be able to adapt that, I guess, though you might have to compile the client first.
• Neeraj: That link talks about using command line in Linux but i am using windows. There might be different steps to configure command line client. BTW what is the name of the command line client for Windows?

Answer 2

Xdebug's DBGp protocol is fairly simple. There is a debugging client "debugclient" available for Windows, which used to be linked from the downloads page (http://xdebug.org/download.php) but it seems I had forgotten to add that back. It is still downloadable through http://xdebug.org/files/debugclient-0.9.0.exe

In order to use this, you do need to write DBGp commands. The reference for this is at http://xdebug.org/docs-dbgp.php - this is not an easy thing to do, but it does work.

• Rafael Barros: SE is awesome! It's not the first time i see the author answering for his creation. The other one was for phpMyAdmin. And, btw, thank you very much for the extension!