Start tracing from wp-config.php

There may be times when you want to activate debug trace for WordPress even before plugins get loaded. You can do this by editing your wp-config.php file. Just before the end of the file, which is normally,

require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');
 

If we want to include bw_trace2(), bw_backtrace() or bw_trace() calls in WordPress core then we need to define the functions, so we include libs/bwtrace.php, assuming it’s present. We also need to define the constants to activate tracing and action counting at config startup. Set the values to true to activate, false otherwise. Add the following code to wp-config.php

define( 'BW_TRACE_CONFIG_STARTUP', true );
define( 'BW_TRACE_ON', true );
define( 'BW_COUNT_ON', true );
define( 'BW_TRACE_RESET', true );
if ( file_exists( ABSPATH . '/wp-content/plugins/oik-bwtrace/libs/bwtrace.php' ) ) {
  require_once( ABSPATH . '/wp-content/plugins/oik-bwtrace/libs/bwtrace.php' );
}
 

BW_TRACE_CONFIG_STARTUP

To start tracing from wp-config.php define the BW_TRACE_CONFIG_STARTUP constant as true.

define( 'BW_TRACE_CONFIG_STARTUP', true );
 

BW_TRACE_ON

To activate trace logic define the BW_TRACE_ON constant as true.

define( 'BW_TRACE_ON', true );
 

BW_COUNT_ON

To activate action counting define the BW_COUNT_ON constant as true. This constant allows the db.php drop-in file to control whether or not action counting is activated as part of the drop-in processing. When you’re not interested in action counting this value should be false.

define( 'BW_COUNT_ON', false );
 

BW_TRACE_RESET

If we want the trace log file to be reset then we also need to define BW_TRACE_RESET as true.

define( 'BW_TRACE_RESET', false );
 

SAVEQUERIES

If you don’t define SAVEQUERIES then oik-bwtrace will enable it if required, but you may miss the first few queries. For example, the one that is performed to load the options that define tracing behaviour.

define( 'SAVEQUERIES', true );
 

DISABLE_WP_CRON

There may be times when the trace output you see is for cron processing. If this is bothering you then you can disable it.

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', 'true');
 

Notes:

• The libs/bwtrace.php is also delivered in the oik base plugin.
• If you want to count ALL actions you also need to edit db.php. See