php-src/tutorials/initializing.md

phpdbginit

Setting up your debugging session automatically

By default, phpdbg looks for .phpdbginit in the current working directory, this location can be overrideen on the command line:

phpdbg -imy.phpdbginit

An init file should contain one command per line, any phpdbg command is supported during init.

In addition, .phpdbginit can contain embedded code, allowing, for example

• the setup of auto completion
• the registration of functions
• the acquisition and pre-compilation of code
• bootstrapping a web application

It is common for C projects (PHP included) to include an init file for the GDB debugger; this would be a clever practice to adopt for those distributing PHP library code.

The default .phpdbginit

We distribute the following init file by default, it should be copied to any directory you commonly execute in:

##########################################################
# .phpdbginit
#
# Lines starting with # are ignored
# Code must start and end with <: and :> respectively
##########################################################
# Place initialization commands one per line
##########################################################
# exec sapi/phpdbg/test.php

##########################################################
# Embedding code in .phpdbginit
##########################################################
<:
/*
 If readline is loaded, you might want to setup completion:
*/
if (function_exists('readline_completion_function')) {
	readline_completion_function(function(){
		return array_merge(
			get_defined_functions()['user'],
			array_keys(get_defined_constants())
		);
	});
}
:>
##########################################################
# Now carry on initializing phpdbg ...
##########################################################
# R my_debugging_function

##########################################################
# PHP has many functions that might be useful
# ... you choose ...
##########################################################
# R touch
# R unlink
# R scandir
# R glob

##########################################################
# Remember: *you have access to the shell*
##########################################################
# The output of registered function calls is not,
# by default, very pretty (unless you implement
# and register a new implementation for phpdbg)
# The output of shell commands will usually be more
# readable on the console
##########################################################
# TLDR; if you have a good shell, use it ...
##########################################################