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# Debugger Protocol

The PHP 3 debugger protocol is line-based. Each line has a type, and several lines compose a message. Each message starts with a line of the type `start` and terminates with a line of the type `end`. PHP 3 may send lines for different messages simultaneously.

A line has this format:

`date` `time`
`host`(`pid`)
`type`:
`message-data`

`date`

  Date in ISO 8601 format (`yyyy`-`mm`-`dd`)

`time`

  Time including microseconds: `hh`:`mm`:`uuuuuu`

`host`

  DNS name or IP address of the host where the script error was generated.

`pid`

  PID (process id) on `host` of the process with the PHP 3 script that generated this error.

`type`

  Type of line. Tells the receiving program about what it should treat the following data as:

  Table D-1. Debugger Line Types

  Name | Meaning
  --- | ---
  `start` | Tells the receiving program that a debugger message starts here. The contents of `data` will be the type of error message, listed below.
  `message` | The PHP 3 error message.
  `location` | File name and line number where the error occurred. The first `location` line will always contain the top-level location. `data` will contain ``file`:`line``. There will always be a `location` line after `message` and after every `function`.
  `frames` | Number of frames in the following stack dump. If there are four frames, expect information about four levels of called functions. If no "frames" line is given, the depth should be assumed to be 0 (the error occurred at top-level).
  `function` | Name of function where the error occurred. Will be repeated once for every level in the function call stack.
  `end` | Tells the receiving program that a debugger message ends here.

`data`

  Line data.

Table D-2. Debugger Error Types

Debugger | PHP 3 Internal
--- | ---
warning | E_WARNING
error | E_ERROR
parse | E_PARSE
notice | E_NOTICE
core-error | E_CORE_ERROR
core-warning | E_CORE_WARNING
unknown | (any other)

Example D-1. Example Debugger Message

1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) start: notice
1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) message: Uninitialized variable
1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) location: (`NULL`):7
1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) frames: 1
1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) function: display
1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) location: /home/ssb/public_html/test.php3:10
1998-04-05 23:27:400966 lucifer.guardian.no(20481) end: notice

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