Strace Debugging for PHP

Strace is a powerful command line tool for debugging and troubleshooting. In this guide, we will discuss how to use strace to debug PHP applications.

Requirements

In order to use strace for debugging PHP, you will need:

• A Linux system
• Root access
• PHP installed

Using Strace

Strace can be used to trace system calls and signals. To use strace to debug a PHP application, we will first need to start the strace process. We can do this by running the following command:

strace -p <pid> -f

Where <pid> is the process ID of the PHP application.

Once the strace process is running, we can then use it to trace system calls and signals. For example, to trace all the system calls made by the PHP application, we can run the following command:

strace -p <pid> -e trace=all

This will trace all the system calls made by the application, including those related to PHP.

Viewing Strace Output

Once strace is running, you can view the output in real-time. To do this, simply run the following command:

tail -f /tmp/strace.log

This will show the output of the strace process in real-time.

Interpreting Strace Output

Interpreting the strace output can be tricky, as it is often difficult to determine what each system call is actually doing. However, there are some tools that can help. For example, the strace-analyze tool can be used to analyze the strace output and provide useful information about the system calls being made.

Conclusion

In this guide, we discussed how to use strace to debug PHP applications. We discussed how to start the strace process, how to view the output, and how to interpret the output. Strace is a powerful tool for debugging, and with the right tools and knowledge, it can be used to quickly diagnose and fix issues with PHP applications.