I had written about setting up php debugging environment with Eclipse on windows.
Well, turns out, setting up the debug environment on Mac OS X is also a little tricky since the library files do not always work.
I used the Helios Eclipse PDT distribution. I tried using the Zend debugging environment. But after struggling with the settings in the php.ini file, I decided to try XDebug. XDebug is straightforward, once you have crossed the windy roads.
Here is the main gottcha - the default xdebug.so which ships with MAMP server might not always work. xdebug.org does not have the mac os x distribution for the .so file either. The one that ships with komodo editor however works and you can get it from here. Once you download the right file, save it and note the location.
Next edit the php.ini located at /Applications/MAMP/conf/php5.3 - Add the following to it
zend_extension="/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.3/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/xdebug.so" xdebug.profiler_output_dir = "/tmp/xdebug/" xdebug.profiler_enable = On xdebug.remote_enable=On xdebug.remote_host="localhost" xdebug.remote_port=9000 xdebug.remote_handler="dbgp" xdebug.idekey=ECLIPSE_DBGP