Hi All,

I have been unable (for quite some time now) to make Xdebug work properly with PHP 5.3+. This seems related to reports such as http://bugs.xdebug.org/view.php?id=658, but maybe not exactly.

The context is as follow:

• windows 7 64
• Apache 2.2.4
• Eclipse 3.8 (though same with 3.7)
• PHP 5.3.20
  Zend Extension Build API220090626, TS, VC9
  PHP Extension Build API20090626, TS, VC9

note: same behavior with 5.3.17, 5.3.18, 5.4.6 and 5.4.10 (the last two testing done with appropriate version of XDebug)

• XDebug 2.2.1: php_xdebug-2.2.1-5.3-vc9.dll

note: exact same behavior with XDebug 2.1.4: php_xdebug-2.1.4-5.3-vc9.dll
note: on same Eclipse setup, switching to PHP 5.2, running php_xdebug-2.1.2-5.2-vc6.dll, everything works fine, no crash at all.

Description and hints:

I am debugging Joomla! code and extensions. Breakpoints works fine in any situation, but having the Variables window opened makes apache crash as follow:

• When stepping through Joomla! 2.5.8 code, XDebug works fine (ie stepping AND displaying variables) until a particular piece of code is reached:
  Line 851 of /libraries/joomla/application/application.php causes the problem:

$router = JRouter::getInstance($name, $options);

This line is part of a method called many times during execution. A possible hint is that I believe this is the first instance of calling a method statically in Joomla! execution stream, though not 100% sure.
I set a breakpoint just above this line, then step over. First and second execution of line 851 work fine. Now stepping over this line a third time makes apache.exe process start eating memory like crazy.
apache.exe, until then, uses up approx. 20MB. Whenever I step over this line for the 3rd time, memory starts increasing in large steps, like 30 or 40MB. This goes on for maybe 20 seconds, until apache.exe reaches a bit less than 2gigs at which point it crashes. The WAMP package I use (EasyPHP) then restarts automatically a new instance of apache.exe, which is back to using about 20MB, and execution resumes normally - ie I can even just press the F6 key to step over code, and variables are displayed in the variable window.

Note that I'm using here a specific version of Joomla! to try provide a common ground for the report. But over the last 12 months, this has happened with several very versions of Joomla. Other issue reports are for similar issues with Drupal and Wordpress, so I'm more inclined to think maybe the fact that I can reproduce the issue systematically on calling a method statically might be a hint.
To put it shortly, I've never been able to use xdebug on php 5.3 and php 5.4, though I've been using for 3 or 4 years now on earlier php versions.
Note also that I worked on the topic on at least 2 machines, as all my setup is on an external drive that I hook up to whatever machine I have. However, both machines I routinely used run windows 7 64 bits.

Thanks for any hint, you've made XDebug so useful that living without it is pretty hard!

Rgds