Xdebug Update: October 2020
Another monthly update where 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, on the first of each month.
I am currently looking for more funding, especially now some companies have dropped out.
You can become a patron or support me through GitHub Sponsors. I am currently 66% towards my $1,000 per month goal.
If you are leading a team or company, then it is also possible to support Xdebug through a subscription.
In October, I worked on Xdebug for about 75 hours, with funding being around 45 hours. I worked mostly on the following things:
Xdebug 3
Xdebug had its first beta release in October, 3.0.0beta1 so that uses can test out the new speed improvements, new functionality, new ways of configuring things, as well as support for PHP 8.
Some bugs were found, and I'm continuing to work together with JetBrains to make sure all the new configuration methods are also supported with/through PhpStorm.
There are also several anecdotal reports that Xdebug 3 is indeed a lot faster in many environments. I have asked the community for benchmarks, but I have not seen any write ups beyond a tweet (now deleted), and an article.
PHP 8
Although PHP 8 is now in the Release Candidate phase, some changes are still happening which requires remediation in Xdebug. I expect that to continue until 8.0.0 is released, which means that Xdebug 3.0.0 can also not be released until that happens, likely on November 26th. Xdebug 3.0.0 will however follow quickly after that.
Xdebug Cloud
I have been working on the web site for Xdebug Cloud, and have been testing the integration with PhpStorm. It all seems to work well, although I'm only the one user.
Once I've found somebody to design the site for me, I will open up Xdebug Cloud through a private alpha.
If you want to be kept up to date with Xdebug Cloud, please sign up to the mailinglist I'll let you know as soon as something can be tried-out.
Business Supporter Scheme and Funding
In October, no new supporters signed up, but a few existing supports renewed.
Thank you Dennis Lassiter!
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.
Life Line
Updated an information and a bench
Created 2 benches
Created 4 picnic_tables, a bench, and a fitness_station; Updated a pub and a sport club
Created 2 benches and 2 waste_baskets; Updated 4 benches, a bus_stop, and a cafe; Confirmed a dentist
Created 3 waste_baskets, 2 main entrances, and a bench; Deleted a cycle_barrier, a bench, and a waste_basket
Created an information; Updated a waste_basket and a bench
Updated 2 waste_baskets and a bench
Created 3 benches
Created a waste_basket; Updated 2 benches and a tree
I walked 3.5km in 35m31s
Created a main entrance and a home entrance
Created an entrance
Updated a house building
Created an entrance
I walked 5.8km in 1h15m06s
I've just finished reading "A Cheese-Monger's Tour de France", by Ned Palmer.
Now I want to try many of those! 🧀
#books #BookList2026 #bookstodon #WorldBookDay
I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at the 23rd edition of #phpday, the international PHP conference in Italy, organised by @grusp.
I’ll be presenting a talk titled: "Better Debugging With Xdebug".
It's in Verona, Italy, on May 14-15th 2026.
You can use my speaker’s discount code "speaker_10OFF" for 10% off at https://www.phpday.it/tickets/?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=post-speaker
I walked 5.5km in 1h11m00s
I walked 1.1km in 9m37s
Merged pull request #1066
PHP 8.6: Changes to opcache optimisations wrt function arguments
I walked 10.5km in 1h49m54s
Fixed building type
Fixed addresses and building type
Updated a bus_stop, a waste_basket, and a bench
Shortlink
This article has a short URL available: https://drck.me/xdebug-20oct-fse