I get this error when I try to debug. I'm using Windows XP for the client and FreeBSD for the server. I've checked the version of the client and the server and it's the same. The module shows up in the phpinfo() page. I notice that I don't have any ports listening on 7869 using netstat on the server. How do I get it to listen?

--Error ---------------------

Failed to run DBG session

reason:
failed to connect to the client address 18.23.212.161:7869
debugger request found in "query_string"

Port 7869 has to be open on your _client_ machine. The dbg extension tries to connect to 18.23.212.161:7869 from the server. Is that your WinXP host?

Maybe some firewall or the like prevents the server from connecting?

I can telnet to my XP Machine but I can't telnet to the server on the port 7869. I would open the port in the /etc/services file but I don't know what service to list there. In the instructions it says


Set up a TCP listener on that port somewhere (for example socket -l -s 1400 on UNIX).


Well it doesn't give an example for FreeBSD and socket command doesn't exsist.

Could you point us to the docs where you found that? You won't need to connect to the server at port 7869. The server has to connect to your client machine.

The debugger "server part" has to be installed on your BSD machine as a PHP extension. It does not open any ports on the server host.

The "client part" is installed on your Windows machine as part of the PhpEd installation. It will listen on port 7869 (by default).

Once you want to debug a script, the server part will recognize the special URL parameter "DBGSESSID". It will connect from the webserver (BSD) to your client (Windows) machine and transfer the data necessary for debugging.

[Actually, as to debugging, the roles of "client" and "server" are inverted. The host running PhpEd is actually the debugging "server", the "server" (as the host running the webserver software) is a client.]

The phped manual in the appendix about debugging is where I got the information. (php_manual_en compiled html help file in the help folder in the program folder) I've noticed it has a lot of references to php 3 when it probably shouldn't.

I got the socket command compiled and running and when the debugging session starts I get a lot of binary ascii showing up in the command window. In the command window it says ./noname1.php|apache/1.3.33@#$@#% and then some more crud. So it seems that it's sending an http request to the server through port 7869 and that's it's expecting a response. I don't know if that's actually what it's doing or not but at least PhpED brings up a status windows with a progress bar and its waiting for the server to time out. Maybe the problem is that the dbg module is not able to open the port 7869 to listen on but I havce no idea.

Here's the phpinfo page showing that the debugger is installed correctly.
http://myserver/phpinfo\.php

Here's the telnet session of me connected from the server to my client.

connectP ~> telnet 68.35.78.191 7869
Trying 68.35.78.191...
Connected to pcp05450767pcs.sandia01.nm.comcast.net.
Escape character is '^]'.

ALL is allowed in my hosts.allow file.

So I can do everything the instructions have said but it's still not working.

This is all due to hard to follow instructions. The error is caused by changing settings for the debugger. I finally got it to work by changing everything back to auto select. Appearently Debugger Host applies to my machine. I think this really needs a name change to say Client Machine Address instead of Host because Host means Apache Host, not Client Host.

actually phped manual has no relation to php_manual_en which is PHP manual, and vice versa.