What is an easy way for disabling a file temporary?

Question

Say I have a file called debug.php and I want to use it only when I am testing scripts.

• How can I disable the file securely?

I'm used to change it to a txt file. But I wonder what other users think is the best method.

Answer 1

Change it to a text file doesn't disable it. And if it is called from somewhere you'll get errors if you have error_reporting enabled. And it might be visible for clients of you change the extension, because a .txt file will not be parsed using PHP.

Since you want the file to only be used when in 'debug mode' I would simply either wrap it in a if-statement or if it is a function add a if-statement with a return void. And set a debug mode constant to be able to switch easily. E.g.

define('DEBUGMODE', true); // set this somewhere in your project as soon as possible

debug.php

<?php

if (DEBUGMODE === true) {
    // do the stuff
}

or

<?php

debugFunction() {
    if (DEBUGMODE === true) return;

    // do the stuff
}