Is there a back button in the Eclipse PHP Xdebug debugging pointer?

Question

I'm debugging PHP with Xdebug using Eclipse. All went OK except when I would like the debugging pointer to go back to the previous lines. Is this possible? I don't want to restart the debugging.

In details, supposing I'm on line 500 then I proceed to line 505, can the debugging pointer in Eclipse goes back to line 500 to check the state of my variables?

I'm still new to debugging with Eclipse so I appreciate any tips on how this will be done. Thank you.

Answer 1

No, it isn't possible. Xdebug doesn't allow you to do it.

You will have to run the program again from the start to get back to the same point. (unless it's in a loop of course)

Answer 2

This kind of feature is highly sophisticated and requires the debugger to store the application state at all times (starting from a breakpoint) in order to "go back in time" and re-run code.

I haven't seen this with xdebug or even PHP at all. Last time I worked with this feature was in the old C++ days with Visual Studio Debugger. Microsoft invented something they called "IntelliTrace" for this.

(see article about IntelliTrace here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee336126.aspx)