Is there a Pretty Print Stack Dump?

Question

Let's face it, debug_backtrace() output is not very pretty. Did anyone code a wrapper?

And what's your favourite pretty var_dump() (which is usable in commercial projects, so no GPL (although LGPL is ok))

See also: A more pretty/informative Var_dump alternative in PHP?

---

Six years - and ten thousand views of this question - later, and I am still using this. It isn't pretty in a way that looks good on screen, like Kint (which is excellent).

It is plain text, which I can email to myself in in automated error reports and can display in the browser's developer console using ChromePhp.

/**
 * @brief Returns an HTML formatted string showing details of the backtrace
 * 
 * Example:
 * 
 *    F:\Dropbox\programs\Xampp\htdocs\api\q.php:48 e(373, 'beer', 'curry')
 *    F:\Dropbox\programs\Xampp\htdocs\api\q.php:53 d(26366, 28255, 8364)
 *    F:\Dropbox\programs\Xampp\htdocs\api\q.php:58 c()
 *    F:\Dropbox\programs\Xampp\htdocs\api\q.php:63 b(1283, 15488, 29369)
 *    F:\Dropbox\programs\Xampp\htdocs\api\q.php:72 a(788, 6077, 25010)
 */
function FormatBacktrace()
{
   $result = '<h4>Backtrace</h4>';

   foreach (debug_backtrace() as $trace)
   {
      if ($trace['function'] ==__FUNCTION__)
          continue;

      $parameters = is_array($trace['args']) ? implode(", ",$trace['args']) : "";

      if (array_key_exists('class', $trace))
         $result .= sprintf("%s:%s %s::%s(%s)<br>",   
                              $trace['file'],   
                              $trace['line'],    
                              $trace['class'],  
                              $trace['function'],  
                              $parameters);
      else
         $result .= sprintf("%s:%s %s(%s)<br>", 
                              $trace['file'], 
                              $trace['line'], 
                              $trace['function'], 
                              $parameters);
    }

    return $result;
}

Answer 1

You also have kint (github repo) which has a composer package on the packagist repository

So either download the library manually or with composer, it's just a matter of :

$ composer init
$ composer require raveren/kint
$ composer install

Then, instead of ini_set('display_errors', 'On');, I prefer to use this simple handler in my main (first) include file :

if (  getenv('__project_env__') === 'DEV') {

  error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);

  function shutdown_handler() {
    $error = error_get_last();
    Kint::trace();
    Kint::dump($error);
  }
  register_shutdown_function('shutdown_handler');

} else {
 ...
}

With __project_env__ being set in Apache's Virtualhost (SetEnv __project_env__ "DEV") so as not to pollute the different branches of the git repository where the project lives with configuration items which are by essence environmental

• In DEV : i get my debugging
• In PROD, it's silent by default

Here is a screenshot of how the trace looks (each step is collapsible):

_{(source: github.io)}

Answer 2

The Xdebug extension can print stacktraces with a configurable degree of verbosity.

It also offers some additional var_dump() features such as syntax coloring:

Edit:

Regarding the inclusion of Xdebug in a commercial project.

The Xdebug license has only a few terms and seems pretty permissive.

Xdebug is a C extension. As such re-distributing it or part of it in your project may be somewhat difficult. Depending on your requirements I see a few options:

• Have your end user install Xdebug from a Linux distribution package or a DLL from the site
• Distribute .dll and .so files for all supported platforms
• Have your end user build the source code
• Distribute a custom build of PHP