Best way to do PHP development on OS X

Question

I just got a Mac with OS X (10.6.8). What options do I have to do serious PHP developement, including a debugger?

I don't ask about what IDE to use. I'm not sure what is the best way to get PHP including XDebug (or any other professional debugger) working. I heard that the Mac comes with Apache and PHP preinstalled. Where can I find any documentation about this. Should I just add MySql and work with this? Or should I go for MAMP or XAMPP. What would be the benefit of this installs over the built in?

I found a lot of descriptions about how to compile XDebug from scratch. Non of them worked for me. Isn't there an easier way of getting a debugger working for OS X?

I'm also ready to upgrade the Mac to the latest OS X, if this is of any help.

Answer 1

In the age of virtualization

• vagrant box full of ubuntu and zend CE server
• zend studio for ide and zend debugger works out of the box
• you can config it to use x-debug just apt-get it

this way you'll keep your os-x clean and have all the necessary stuff inside a portable/deployable virtual machine that runs on background or can be launched from any machine you might be using today or tomorrow

Answer 2

After a lot more googling and try and error I found a very nice and easy to install solution which works great for me:

1. Installed MacGDBp.
2. Installed MAMP.
3. Opened the php.ini at /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/conf/php.ini and uncommented the only line containing the xdebug.so file.

4. Added this lines at the end of php.ini

   xdebug.remote_enable=1
   xdebug.remote_host=localhost 
   xdebug.remote_port=9000
   xdebug.remote_autostart=1
   

5. After restarting apache MacGDBp stoped at the first PHP line.

6. Done!