I run a web site on a shared hosting service. I need to debug some PHP code. I ran the debug wizard and it told me what to change. I can certainly update php.ini as I have my own copy on the shared server. However, how do I add the debug module to "/usr/php/56/usr/lib64/php/modules"? Isn't that a folder that's inaccessible to users?

Has anyone run the debugger on a shared hosting service?

If your shared hosting service runs in suExec (PHPsuExec) or suPHP mode, then PHP runs using your own user and you can probably create your own php.ini then add the debugger to that.

FastCGI also runs PHP using your own user, but can be configured so you cannot override php.ini

In php.ini you could try changing PHP extension_dir to point to somewhere you can copy files to, then add the module to that directory. You could also copy all the other existing modules over to that directory. I'm sure I did that a few years ago on a PHPsuExec VPS at HostGator.

Another consideration is even if you can get the debugger module running, can you could open a debugger port to communicate with? A properly locked down server firewall should stop you doing that.

If you are using a shared hosting service, there is a reasonable chance you will not be able to use the debug module. You might need a VPS.

You should not normally enable debuggers on production servers, but for rare issues it might be useful if done with briefly during fault diagnosis and with care, then disabled afterwards.

Plugnplay...

Thanks for your reply. I'm in agreement with you after I emailed the hosting service. They implied the only way to do debugging is with a VPS.