symfony · weaverryan · Dec 16, 2014 · Nov 18, 2014 · Nov 23, 2014 · Dec 15, 2014
diff --git a/components/console/helpers/debug_formatter.rst b/components/console/helpers/debug_formatter.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+.. index::
+    single: Console Helpers; DebugFormatter Helper
+
+Debug Formatter Helper
+======================
+
+.. versionadded:: 2.6
+    The Debug Formatter helper was introduced in Symfony 2.6.
+
+The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Helper\\DebugFormatterHelper` provides
+functions to output debug information when running an external program, for
+instance a process or HTTP request. It is included in the default helper set
+and you can get it by calling
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Command\\Command::getHelper`::
+
+    $debugFormatter = $this->getHelper('debug_formatter');
+
+The formatter only formats strings, which you can use to output to the console,
+but also to log the information or do anything else.
+
+All methods of this helper have an identifier as the first argument. This is a
+unique value for each program. This way, the helper can debug information for
+multiple programs at the same time. When using the
+:doc:`Process component </components/process>`, you probably want to use
+:phpfunction:`spl_object_hash`.
+
+.. tip::
+
+    This information is often too verbose to be shown by default. You can use
+    :ref:`verbosity levels <verbosity-levels>` to only show it when in
+    debugging mode (``-vvv``).
+
+Starting a Program
+------------------
+
+As soon as you start a program, you can use
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Helper\\DebugFormatterHelper::start` to
+display information that the program is started::
+
+    // ...
+    $process = new Process(...);
+    $process->run();
+
+    $output->writeln($debugFormatter->start(spl_object_hash($process), 'Some process description'));
+
+This will output:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+     RUN Some process description
+
+You can tweak the prefix using the third argument::
+
+    $output->writeln($debugFormatter->start(spl_object_hash($process), 'Some process description', 'STARTED');
+    // will output:
+    //  STARTED Some process description
+
+Output Progress Information
+---------------------------
+
+Some programs give output while they are running. This information can be shown
+using
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Helper\\DebugFormatterHelper::progress`::
+
+    use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;
+
+    // ...
+    $process = new Process(...);
+
+    $process->run(function ($type, $buffer) use ($output, $debugFormatter, $process) {
+        $output->writeln(
+            $debugFormatter->progress(spl_object_hash($process), $buffer, Process::ERR === $type)
+        );
+    });
+    // ...
+
+In case of success, this will output:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+    OUT The output of the process
+
+And this in case of failure:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+    ERR The output of the process
+
+The third argument is a boolean which tells the function if the output is error
+output or not. When ``true``, the output is considered error output.
+
+The fourth and fifth argument allow you to override the prefix for the normal
+output and error output respectively.
+
+Stopping a Program
+------------------
+
+When a program is stopped, you can use
+:method:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Helper\\DebugFormatterHelper::run` to
+notify this to the users::
+
+    // ...
+    $output->writeln(
+        $debugFormatter->stop(
+            spl_object_hash($process),
+            'Some command description',
+            $process->isSuccessfull()
+        )
+    );
+
+This will output:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+    RES Some command description
+
+In case of failure, this will be in red and in case of success it will be green.
+
+Using multiple Programs
+-----------------------
+
+As said before, you can also use the helper to display more programs at the
+same time. Information about different programs will be shown in different
+colors, to make it clear which output belongs to which command.
diff --git a/components/console/helpers/index.rst b/components/console/helpers/index.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ The Console Helpers
 .. toctree::
     :hidden:
 
+    debug_formatter
     dialoghelper
     formatterhelper
     processhelper

diff --git a/components/console/helpers/map.rst.inc b/components/console/helpers/map.rst.inc
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 * :doc:`/components/console/helpers/questionhelper`
 * :doc:`/components/console/helpers/table`
 * :doc:`/components/console/helpers/tablehelper`
+* :doc:`/components/console/helpers/debug_formatter` (new in 2.6)