The mod_perl debugger you've always wanted

By Josh ben Jore on July 22, 2010 6:34 PM

To use the nice mod_perl debugger you've always wanted:

get a terminal server http://bit.ly/drrYdS
upgrade your debugger http://bit.ly/cMFiwZ
connect the two
pour the espresso onto the ice cream before serving

To connect the two and start up your apache with no fuss:

# httpd.conf
<Perl>
    use Enbugger;

    # Send the debugger to your waiting terminal server but disable readline
    # because I haven't figured that part out yet.
    $ENV{PERLDB_OPTS} = 'RemotePort=localhost:53505';
    $ENV{PERL_RL}     = 0;

    Enbugger->load_debugger;
</Perl>

This is all flexible so you can have an ordinary forking mod_perl and don't need to start it any strange way. If you're adventurous, you could inject this right into your running mod_perl by using that snippet somewhere in your application. If you're desperate and have a problem in production and want a debugger there, check out http://bit.ly/bGqCOT to add it at runtime from the outside.

I'm still playing with the proper settings for $ENV{PERL_RL}. I used 'o=0' yesterday and it seemed ok but maybe ought to be 0 instead. Also, I think possibly the terminal servers want more work.