Debugging PHP with Vim + Xdebug + Vdebug

How to debug PHP code with Vim + Xdebug thanks to the Vdebug plugin. The example below assumes that you'll use vim as the editor in the webserver itself but you can use it from a different development machine (just adjust the IP addresses as desired).

Install the vdebug plugin so that it's started with your favourite Vim's plugin manager Pathogen/Vundle/plugins. In my case, for pathogen:

# git clone https://github.com/joonty/vdebug.git ~/.vim/bundle/vdebug

Install the xdebug package for your distribution. Either:

apt-get install php5-xdebug

or:

yum install php-pecl-xdebug

Edit the xdebug.ini configuration file to set up xdebug (disabled by default, change to port 10000, disable the profiler, etc):

# cat /etc/php.d/xdebug.ini
; Enable xdebug extension module
zend_extension=/usr/lib64/php/modules/xdebug.so
xdebug.remote_autostart=1
xdebug.default_enable=0
xdebug.remote_enable=0
xdebug.remote_remote_enable=0
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port=10000
xdebug.idekey=netbeans-xdebug
xdebug.profiler_enable=0

Now, enable xdebug only in the desired virtualhost:

# cat /etc/httpd/vhosts.d/my_vhost.conf
(...)
php_flag   xdebug.default_enable on
php_flag   xdebug.enable on
php_flag   xdebug.remote_enable on
(...)

Edit the vimrc file for your developer user in the server and add:

let g:vdebug_options = {'ide_key': 'netbeans-xdebug'}
let g:vdebug_options = {'break_on_open': 0}
let g:vdebug_options = {'server': '127.0.0.1'}
let g:vdebug_options = {'port': '10000'}

The predefined keys are:

<F5>: start/run (to next breakpoint/end of script)
<F2>: step over
<F3>: step into
<F4>: step out
<F6>: stop debugging
<F7>: detach script from debugger
<F9>: run to cursor
<F10>: toggle line breakpoint
<F11>: show context variables (e.g. after "eval")
<F12>: evaluate variable under cursor
:Breakpoint <type> <args>: set a breakpoint of any type (see :help VdebugBreakpoints)
:VdebugEval <code>: evaluate some code and display the result
<Leader>e: evaluate the expression under visual highlight and display the result
To stop debugging, press <F6>. Press it again to close the debugger interface.

• Open the web browser and visit your web app. If using an NGINX+Apache environment, it's better if you visit Apache directly (port 8080 or whatever) and skip any proxying.
• Login into your site if required.
• Navigate until you reach the page you want to debug.
• Open in vim the PHP file you want to debug (the page where you want to place the breakpoint).
• Place a breakpoint in your code by pressing F10 in the desired line.
• Press F5 to start the debugger. Vim will try to connect now to xdebug (you have 20 seconds to reload the page).
• Reload the page in the webbrowser. You'll see that Vim has changed and it's displaying a different layout: code, variables, debugger messages, etc.
• The debugging will start from the first line of the webapp.
• Press F5 to execute the application until it reaches your breakpoint.
• Now use:
  • F2 to step over (next line)
  • F3 to step into (next line, including functions)
  • F4 to step out (exit from functions)
  • F9 to run to current cursor position
  • F11 to show all the context variables
  • F12 to show the value of the variable behind the cursor
  • F6 + F6 to exit the debugging session and close the debugger windows

If you don't feel comfortable with the default keyboard shortcuts for vdebug, you can change them by setting the "vdebug_keymap" variable in your .vimrc.

Keymap example from http://thorpesystems.com/blog/debugging-php-in-vim/ .

" Vdebug
let g:vdebug_keymap = {
\    "run" : "<Leader>/",
\    "run_to_cursor" : "<Down>",
\    "step_over" : "<Up>",
\    "step_into" : "<Left>",
\    "step_out" : "<Right>",
\    "close" : "q",
\    "detach" : "x",
\    "set_breakpoint" : "<Leader>p",
\    "eval_visual" : "<Leader>e"
\}

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