CodeRush vs. PCOV vs. Python vs. Xdebug Comparison Chart

A self-contained CodeCoverage compatible driver for PHP. When PCOV is left unset, PCOV will attempt to find src, lib or, app in the current working directory, in that order; If none are found the current directory will be used, which may waste resources storing coverage information for the test suite. If PCOV contains test code, it's recommended to set the exclude command to avoid wasting resources. To avoid unnecessary allocation of additional arenas for traces and control flow graphs, PCOV should be set according to the memory required by the test suite. To avoid reallocation of tables, PCOV should be set to a number higher than the number of files that will be loaded during testing, inclusive of test files. interoperability with Xdebug is not possible. At an internal level, the executor function is overridden by PCOV, so any extension or SAPI which does the same will be broken. PCOV is zero cost, code runs at full speed.

Xdebug is an extension for PHP, and provides a range of features to improve the PHP development experience. A way to step through your code in your IDE or editor while the script is executing. An improved var_dump() function, stack traces for notices, warnings, errors, and exceptions to highlight the code path to the error. Writes every function call, with arguments and invocation location to disk. Optionally also includes every variable assignment and return value for each function. Allows you, with the help of visualization tools, to analyze the performance of your PHP application and find bottlenecks. Shows which parts of your code base are executed when running unit tests with PHPUnit. Installing Xdebug with a package manager is often the fastest way. You can substitute the PHP version with the one that matches the PHP version that you are running. You can install Xdebug through PECL on Linux & macOS with Homebrew.