This document provides tips for debugging PHP Cake applications. It discusses using XDebug to trace code, view context and variable contents using debug() and var_dump(), and prevent errors from breaking production. It recommends using DebugKit, monitoring tools like Redis-live and Varnishstat, and notifying on errors. Verbose logging with sgLogMessage and unifying logs with Logstash are also covered. Finally, it discusses aggregating metrics with Graphite and Statsd.

1. Debugging your PHP
Cake Application

2. about
n Developer and Operations at
seatgeek.com
n Cake Core - Plugins Site and IRC Troll
n Open Source Contributor (github.com/
josegonzalez)

3. Trace the

7. DERP

8. packages/dl/1/

9. DERP
packages/dl/1/

11. Showing Context

12. debug($herp)
/app/Controller/PackagesController.php (line 107)
'derp'

13. debug($herp)
/app/Controller/PackagesController.php (line 107)
'derp'
class name

14. debug($herp)
/app/Controller/PackagesController.php (line 107)
'derp'
line number

15. debug($herp)
/app/Controller/PackagesController.php (line 107)
'derp'
the good bits

16. xdebug
apt-get install php5-xdebug
# php.ini
[xdebug]
xdebug.cli_color = 1

17. var_dump()

18. overrides var_dump()
var_dump

19. var_dump()
type

20. var_dump()
contents

21. var_dump()
length

22. xdebug_debug_zval

23. xdebug_debug_zval
tight loop goodies

24. Don’t Break
Production

25. debug(); die;

26. debug(); die;

27. diebug()

28. diebug()

29. Show Application
State

30. debug_kit
git clone git://github.com/cakephp/debug_kit

31. debug_kit

32. debug_kit

33. debug_kit

34. debug_kit

35. etc.

36. the server is part of
the application

37. SO TREAT IT AS
SUCH

38. redis-live

39. paramedic

40. varnishstat

41. statistics are
good

42. visualization
are

43. Notify on Errors

44. first pass

45. second pass

46. third pass

47. fourth pass

48. fifth pass?

49. Verbose Logging

50. printf

51. printf
no timestamp

52. printf
needs newlines

53. printf
SUCKS

54. sgLogMessage

55. sgLogMessage
categorization

56. sgLogMessage
auto-out with
newlines

57. sgLogMessage
standard date

58. sgLogMessage
stored logs!

59. logs can never be
too VERBOSE

60. Unify Logging

61. logstash
log-aggregator
message parser
notification system

62. logstash

63. logstash

64. ¿logstash?
n Searchable logs
n Aggregate all logs in one place
n Alert, Notify, Create metrics from one
place
n Empower your developers

65. Aggregate Metrics

66. graphite
time-series data
graph rendering
simple graph url-

67. graphite does not...
alert on data
collect data
export data
https://gist.github.com/

68. sending stats
Statsd::increment(‘seatgeek.www.php.e_warning’);
# sends data to statsd
# metrics aggregated
# view in your graphite backend

69. interesting
n check mysql replication length
n track conversions in your app
n expense tracking
n alerting systems

70. earthquake effects

71. apc configuration

72. Questions?