How to open .XT files on Linux
To open .XT files on Linux, open the .xt file in a text editor (e.g., VS Code, gedit, kate) or view it with terminal tools like less.
Step-by-step instructions
- Open the .xt file in a text editor (e.g., VS Code, gedit, kate) or view it with terminal tools like less.
- If you generated it via Xdebug, compare timestamps and the configured trace output directory to confirm it is the expected trace.
Common issues
The .xt file is unreadable or looks like random characters
Not every .xt is an Xdebug trace; .xt is also reported for FastTracker 2 “Extended Track” files. If it is not plain text, you may be dealing with a different format.
- Try opening it in a text editor first; Xdebug traces should look like structured trace output, not binary noise.
- If it does not resemble a log, treat it as an audio/tracker-related file and check FastTracker 2-related tooling/support instead.
File is huge and the editor freezes
Function traces can become very large, especially if tracing is enabled broadly or for long-running requests.
- Open it with a large-file-capable editor or use command-line paging tools (less/more) to inspect it.
- Regenerate a smaller trace by limiting tracing to a single request or shortening the code path you trace.
Xdebug keeps appending “.xt” and you expected a different filename
Xdebug’s function trace feature commonly appends the “.xt” extension to trace files; this can surprise users who configured a fixed filename.
- Review Xdebug’s function trace documentation for the option that disables adding “.xt” so the configured name is used as-is.
- After changing settings, restart your PHP runtime (e.g., PHP-FPM/Apache) and reproduce the request to generate a new trace.
Security note
.xt Xdebug traces can contain sensitive information (filesystem paths, function arguments, and data passed through your application). Treat them like confidential logs before sharing.