Xdebug configuration with PHP fastcgi and eclipse?

Question

I have been using eclipse-pdt in conjunction with xdebug and apache without problems, for over one year. Things worked flawlessly and I could do all the interactive debugging I wanted from within eclipse (using my own machine as a server).

Now I switched from apache to nginx (and therefore PHP runs now not as an Apache service but as fast-cgi) and I can't find a way to configure eclipse to work nicely with xdebug. I am neither sure if the problem is with xdebug or with eclipse (or both) to be sure.

In the eclipse configuration I already changed the reference to the PHP configuration file to /etc/php5/cli/php.ini.

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Attempts with php.ini version 1

With the following php.ini file

zend_extension=/usr/lib/php5/20060613/xdebug.so

• I see that xdebug is working (for example if I do a var_dump() I get the xdebug version of it, not the plain PHP one)
• I can't have the interactive debugging from eclipse: the browser opens up and loads the page completely with the typical URL containing ...?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=ECLIPSE_DBGP&KEY=..., but the program execution does not stop at breakpoints
• In the bottom-right corner of eclipse I see a suspicious message: "Launching =put_the_name_of_my_project_here=: 57%" that alternates with the "refreshing workspace" one.

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Attempts with php.ini version 2

If I use this other version of the file (which is what it worked until I switched to nginx):

zend_extension=/usr/lib/php5/20060613/xdebug.so
xdebug.remote_enable=On
xdebug.remote_autostart=On
xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_mode=req

I can't access any page of my sites at all.

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PS: Additional data on my machine: - OS: GNU/Linux - Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit. - PHP: 5.2.10-2ubuntu6.3 with Suhosin-Patch 0.9.7; Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2009 Zend Technologies with Xdebug v2.0.4 - Eclipse: see screenshot.

Answer 1

What Beau said is correct (couldn't vote since I'm new!).

Generally, addging to /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini (or locate php.ini) the lines like

zend_extension = /PATH_TO/xdebug.so   ## <-- NOTE the absolute path, not relational (For ex on Windows: "C:\nginx-1.9.13\php\ext\php_xdebug-2.6.0RC2-7.0-vc14-nts.dll")
xdebug.remote_enable = on
xdebug.remote_handler = dbgp
xdebug.remote_host = localhost
xdebug.remote_port = 9900        ## <-- Yours will be probly 9000 or other..

does the job.

So after the change,

./php-fastcgi stop
./php-fastcgi start

This worked for me.

Answer 2

xdebug and FastCGI use the same default port (9000). Change the port of XDebug in your php.ini file like this:

xdebug.remote_port=9001

and update your IDE settings to use 9001.

Answer 3

Try restarting your php. Because you have php-fastcgi, restarting nginx doesn't seem to do it. When I rebooted my whole server the change took effect.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and solved it.
In file /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini add:

[xdebug] xdebug.remote_enable=On
xdebug.remote_autostart=off
xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_mode=req

In file /etc/php5/cli/php.ini add:

zend_extension=/usr/lib/php5/20060613/xdebug.so
xdebug.remote_enable=On
xdebug.remote_autostart=off
xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_mode=req

Restart Apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Answer 5

Problem in solution is "xdebug.remote_autostart = on". If you set in file config "xdebug.remote_autostart = on". This will force Xdebug to start a debug session for every request that is done on this server, without having to specify in the request that a debug session is wanted.

You need change

"xdebug.remote_autostart = off"

And restart web service. In this example is Apache.

You can read more here: http://doc.waterproof.fr/phpedit/debugging_profiling/configuration/debugger_with_xdebug

GoodLuck!