Xdebug still listens to the html_errors setting. If you have set that to 1, then it will give you HTML and not CLI/CLI with colours output. Please check this setting with:

php -i | grep html_errors

And also, try running your script with the following:

php -dhtml_errors=0 -dxdebug.cli_color=2 -dxdebug.over_load_vardump=1 yourscript.php

then compare that to:

php -dhtml_errors=1 -dxdebug.cli_color=2 -dxdebug.over_load_vardump=1 yourscript.php

As shown above I have html_errors = Off in all the tests. I also changed it to html_errors = 0 and have the same results which is what I expected since PHP allows either.

Also tried with the settings using -d options like you suggested and they are the same with no color and html tags.

dragon:~/github/Dragonrun1/Yapeal/src/Yapeal # php -dhtml_errors=0 -dxdebug.cli_color=2 -dxdebug.over_load_vardump=1 ../../test.php
<pre class='xdebug-var-dump' dir='ltr'>
object(Yapeal\Entity\Char\AgentsStandings)[16]
protected 'fromId' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>
protected 'fromName' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>
protected 'standing' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>
protected 'owner' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>

dragon:~/github/Dragonrun1/Yapeal/src/Yapeal # php -dhtml_errors=1 -dxdebug.cli_color=2 -dxdebug.over_load_vardump=1 ../../test.php
<pre class='xdebug-var-dump' dir='ltr'>
object(Yapeal\Entity\Char\AgentsStandings)[16]
protected 'fromId' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>
protected 'fromName' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>
protected 'standing' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>
protected 'owner' <font color='#888a85'>=></font> <font color='#3465a4'>null</font>

Both the prompt and when I run ls -al show colors so I know Konsole is set for color output.

Is there a way I can have a look at your machine, as this makes no sense whatsoever and I can't reproduce this.

Actually been updating that computer to new OpenSuSE 13.1 version so give me a couple days and I'll try things under it and see if it's still happens which I have a feeling it will but who knows. I have basic backup of the old system in case something goes wrong so might even be able to put it in VM or something that I can sent you once I'm done.

So would you say this is now all resolved?

Sorry didn't get back to you on this let's just say life happened and I ended up forgetting to do the tests. I've tried it in Ubunto 13.04 and openSuSE13.1 in VM and neither seem to do it. I'd mark it down to something wrong with the old install since I can't seem to reproduce either now so go ahead and close if I find way to get it to happen again I'll let you know.

Not a problem. Closing this out then.