Xdebug Update: November 2021
Xdebug Update: November 2021
In this monthly update I explain what happened with Xdebug development in this past month. These will be published on the first Tuesday after the 5th of each month.
Patreon and GitHub supporters will get it earlier, around the first of each month.
You can become a patron or support me through GitHub Sponsors. I am currently 46% towards my $2,500 per month goal. If you are leading a team or company, then it is also possible to support Xdebug through a subscription.
In November, I worked on Xdebug directly for only about 16 hours, with funding being around 24 hours. Please become a supporter of Xdebug through Patreon or GitHub.
Xdebug 3.1 and further
Since my last report, there were no more new issues reported with either functionality or crashes, and I have prepared for the Xdebug 3.1.2 release. Although I didn't publish that in November, I did release it on December 1st.
It addresses a few crash bugs related to PHP 8.1 fibers, a crash bug when Xdebug can't write a profiler file, and an issue with Xdebug's var_dump() not using the magic __debugInfo method.
The full list of changes can be found on the updates page on the Xdebug website.
So what's next? Xdebug's profiler needs a rewrite. There are several design and implementation issues, that can only be resolved by a rewrite. To create less overhead it can also use PHP 8's new Observer API as well.
But this is going to take a large amount of work, and with the current low, and decreasing, funding levels, I can not put a lot of effort behind this.
Xdebug Cloud
To help with funding my work on Xdebug, I have a paid-for-service, called Xdebug Cloud.
Xdebug Cloud is the Proxy As A Service platform to allow for debugging in more scenarios, where it is hard, or impossible, to have Xdebug make a connection to the IDE. It is continuing to operate as Beta release.
Packages start at £49/month, and revenue will be used to further the development of Xdebug.
If you want to be kept up to date with Xdebug Cloud, please sign up to the mailinglist, which I will use to send out an update not more than once a month.
Xdebug Videos
I have published more videos on how to use Xdebug on my YouTube channel.
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Debugging: Short Closures and Conditional Breakpoints explains debugging with Short Closures and Conditional Breakpoints:
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Xdebug 3: Setting up Apache, PHP, VS Code, and Xdebug in 10 minutes shows how to install Apache, PHP, VS Code, and Xdebug on Ubuntu 21.10, to get a PHP development set-up, all within 10 minutes.
I will continue to create more videos, and also convert some of them to tutorials.
If you would like to suggest a topic for a 5 to 15 minute long video, feel free to request them through this Google Form.
Business Supporter Scheme and Funding
In November, no new business supporters signed up.
If you, or your company, would also like to support Xdebug, head over to the support page!
Besides business support, I also maintain a Patreon page and a profile on GitHub sponsors.
