Trace where code is coming from (PHP)

Question

I\'m going through a customer\'s server, running crazy proprietary forum software (vBulletin) and even worse SEO mods (vbseo). I cannot figure out where the php code for a page

Answer 1

Sounds like you need to step through it with Xdebug. Most common IDE's support it such as Netbeans and PHPStorm.

Resources:

• Tracing PHP apps with Xdebug
• Xdebug with Netbeans
• Xdebug with PHPstorm (I recommend)
• Xdebug with Eclipse
• Chrome Xdebug extension (I recommend)
• Firefox Xdebug plug-in

In both the above mentioned IDE's, you can CTRL+Click a function/method and it will take you to the line in the file where it is defined. You can also track usages for both functions and variables.

Tracing code is built-in to xdebug. Here's an example from Zend:

Trace file output:

TRACE START [2007-10-26 12:18:48]
    0.0068      53384     -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:5
    0.0069      53584       -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0069      53840         -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0070      54096           -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0070      54376             -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0071      54656               -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0072      54936                 -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0072      55216                   -> fac() C:\www\fac.php:10
    0.0073      55392     -> xdebug_stop_trace() C:\www\fac.php:13
    0.0237      55392
TRACE END   [2007-10-26 12:18:48]