PhpStorm + Xdebug remote debugging froze

Question

I have set PHP debugging with Xdebug on PhpStorm to hit a localhost. Everything works fine with "smart PHP listening" or manual debug run unless I have got to the point where code looks like

$aOptions = array (
        'http' => array (
                'header' => "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n$sBits",
                'method' => 'POST',
                'content' => http_build_query ( $aData )
        )
);

$rContext = stream_context_create ( $aOptions );
$sResult = file_get_contents ( $sUrl, false, $rContext );
return \json_decode ( $sResult );

and got stuck on a line

$sResult = file_get_contents ( $sUrl, false, $rContext );

with an error message

file_get_contents(http://localhost:8888/data/?/Ajax/&q[]=/0/): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed!

but when I run debug after that line will pass all work fine.

PhpStorm and Xdebug has already set

• Settings | PHP | Debug | Max simultaneous connections --> 5.

xdebug.remote_autostart = 1

Any clue why Xdebug hangs on it when without debugging it can pass w/o any issue?

Answer 1

You're calling localhost also in the file_get_contents() call. Is it the same port? If the xdebug is kicking in there too, then that request will be held (won't complete) and eventually the file_get_contents will time out.

Is that code also accessible from PHP Storm? If so, you should jump in to that. Otherwise try running with cookie-triggered xdebug, so only the main request triggers it.

xdebug.remote_autostart = 1 means When this setting is set to 1, Xdebug will always attempt to start a remote debugging session and try to connect to a client, even if the GET/POST/COOKIE variable was not present. [1] so that indicates it might be this

I think you just want xdebug.remote_enable = 1 then use the extension/plugin for your browser (most browsers have an enable/disable xdebug plugin) to trigger xdebug only on your main request

[1] https://xdebug.org/docs/remote

Answer 2

Based on JetBrains documentation for simultaneous debugging sessions I was able to get it fixed by adding suggested code to start debugger session for child requests as follow

$aOptions = array (
        'http' => array (
                'header' => "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n$sBits",
                'method' => 'POST',
                'content' => http_build_query ( $aData )
        )
);

$debuggingQuerystring = '';
if (isset($_GET['XDEBUG_SESSION_START'])) { // xdebug
     $debuggingQuerystring = '?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=' . $_GET['XDEBUG_SESSION_START'];
}
if (isset($_COOKIE['XDEBUG_SESSION'])) { // xdebug (cookie)
     $debuggingQuerystring = '?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=PHPSTORM';
}

$rContext = stream_context_create ( $aOptions );
$sResult = file_get_contents ( $sUrl.$debuggingQuerystring, false, $rContext );
return \json_decode ( $sResult );