Merge pull request #13 from php-debugger/breakpoints

write the breakpoints guide page

Author: carlos-granados

docs/user-guide/breakpoints.md

@@ -2,8 +2,155 @@
 title: Breakpoints
 ---
 
-Set line, conditional, and exception breakpoints anywhere in your code, and manage them from your IDE or the CLI.
+A breakpoint tells the debugger when to stop and hand the session to you. You set
+them in your editor; your editor sends them over the connection, and the debugger
+holds them for as long as the session lasts.
+
+Nothing is written to your code and nothing is stored on disk. Every kind described
+below is set the same way — through your editor's own interface — so what follows
+covers what the debugger can do rather than which menu your editor puts it under.
+
+## Line breakpoints
+
+The common case: a file and a line number. Execution stops just before that line
+runs, with the scope at that point available to inspect.
+
+The line has to be one that actually executes. Blank lines, comments, a closing
+brace, a `use` statement at the top of a file — none of these are ever reached, so
+a breakpoint on them never fires. Editors usually move the marker to the next
+executable line; if yours does not, the breakpoint sits there and does nothing.
+
+## Function breakpoints
+
+Instead of a place, name a function and the debugger stops whenever it runs. Useful
+when you know *what* is being called but not *where* from, and it survives moving
+the code around.
+
+Two flavours:
+
+| Kind | Stops |
+| --- | --- |
+| Call | On entry, before the first statement of the body. |
+| Return | On the way out, with the return value available. |
+
+Name a plain function as `myFunction`, and a method as `MyClass::myMethod` for both
+static and instance methods. The name is matched exactly — the debugger is not
+matching a pattern, so a typo simply never fires.
+
+Return breakpoints are the quicker way to answer "what did this actually give
+back?" — you see the value without stepping to the call site to catch it.
+
+## Exception breakpoints
+
+Name an exception class and the debugger stops at the point it is thrown, before
+any `catch` block runs. This is the one that pays for itself: you get the stack as
+it was at the throw, rather than wherever the exception was eventually handled.
+
+Matching follows the class hierarchy — a breakpoint on a parent class catches
+everything below it, so `Throwable` catches every exception and error PHP has. A
+breakpoint on `*` catches all of them without naming anything.
+
+PHP's own error levels can be named the same way, as though they were exception
+classes:
+
+```
+Warning
+Notice
+Deprecated
+Fatal error
+```
+
+So a breakpoint on `Warning` stops at the line that raised it, which beats reading
+a log entry after the fact.
+
+## Breaking from your code
+
+When there is no useful line to click on — generated code, a template compiled at
+runtime, a file your editor cannot map to what is really executing — call the
+function instead:
+
+```php
+php_debugger_break();
+```
+
+Execution stops there as though you had set a line breakpoint on it. The call
+returns `true` if the debugger stopped and `false` if it could not.
+
+It needs somewhere to stop *to*. With your editor connected it just works. With
+nothing connected it is ignored, and raises a notice, unless
+`php_debugger.on_demand_debugging_enabled=1` lets the debugger attach mid-request —
+see [starting the debugger](./starting-the-debugger.md).
+
+Being real code, it goes in a commit if you are not careful. Prefer a breakpoint set
+from your editor whenever one will do.
+
+## Making a breakpoint fire less often
+
+A breakpoint in a loop, or in a function called from everywhere, stops far more
+often than you want. Two settings narrow it, and they can be combined.
+
+### Conditions
+
+Attach a PHP expression and the debugger only stops when it evaluates to true. The
+expression runs in the scope of the breakpoint, so it can see the local variables
+there:
+
+```php
+$order->getId() === 42
+$i > 1000 && $found === null
+```
+
+This is what your editor means by a *conditional breakpoint* — it is an ordinary
+breakpoint with an expression attached, not a separate thing.
+
+The expression is evaluated every time the line is reached, so keep it cheap and
+keep it free of side effects. An expression that fails to evaluate — a typo, a
+variable not in scope — counts as false, and the breakpoint silently never fires.
+
+### Hit counts
+
+A breakpoint counts how many times it has been hit, and can optionally use that
+count to decide whether to stop:
+
+| Condition | Stops |
+| --- | --- |
+| `>= n` | From the nth hit onwards. |
+| `== n` | On the nth hit only. |
+| `% n` | Every nth hit. |
+
+`>= 1` is the same as no hit condition at all, which is the default.
+
+One thing worth knowing when you use both together: **the counter only advances on
+hits where the condition was true.** The condition is evaluated first, and a hit
+that fails it does not count. So a condition of `$i > 100` with a hit count of
+`== 3` stops on the third time the condition held — not on the third time the line
+ran.
+
+## Temporary breakpoints
+
+A temporary breakpoint fires once and then switches itself off. It is the natural
+fit for "get me into this function once so I can look around", and it saves you
+deleting the breakpoint immediately afterwards.
+
+It disables itself rather than deleting itself, so it stays in your editor's list
+and you can switch it back on for another single hit.
+
+## Enabling and disabling
+
+Any breakpoint can be turned off without being removed. A disabled breakpoint keeps
+its line, its condition and its hit count, and stops firing until you turn it back
+on — useful when you are narrowing a problem and want to silence one without losing
+how it was set up.
+
+Disabling is not free, though. The breakpoint is still in the list the debugger
+carries, and still costs something to skip over.
+
+:::tip[Remove breakpoints once you are done with them]
+
+Every breakpoint left behind is checked on every request for the rest of the
+session, and a disabled one is only cheaper, not free. A list that has grown over
+an afternoon of debugging is a slow session that gets blamed on the debugger.
+
+When you have finished with a breakpoint, delete it rather than disabling it.
 
-:::note
-This page is a work in progress — full documentation is coming soon.
 :::