Claus Conrad

Debugging PHP with VS Code, WSL 2 (Ubuntu 22.04), PHP 8.1 and Xdebug 3

2 min read

Prerequisites

Steps

Install WSL 2 and Ubuntu 22.04

wsl --install

Start Ubuntu

One of:

In Ubuntu

  1. Add Ondřej Surý’s PPA: 
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
  2. Install Xdebug 3.2.0 for PHP 8.1 (this will also install PHP 8.1): 
    sudo apt install -y php8.1-xdebug
  3. Open /etc/php/8.1/cli/conf.d/20-xdebug.ini in an editor and paste the following configuration (the first line should already exist): 
    zend_extension = xdebug.so
xdebug.mode = develop,debug
xdebug.discover_client_host = 1
  4. Create a project folder: 
    mkdir ~/demo
cd ~/demo
mkdir .vscode
  5. Create a test file ~/demo/index.php with the following contents: 
    <?php
 phpinfo();
?>
  6. Start the PHP web server: 
    php -S localhost:8080

In VS Code

  1. Install the WSL extension like this:

    Press F1, press Backspace, paste the following command and press Enter:

    ext install ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl

  2. Install the PHP Debug extension like this:

    Press F1, press Backspace, paste the following command and press Enter:

    ext install xdebug.php-debug

  3. Open the project folder in WSL like this:

    1. Press F1, enter WSL: Connect to WSL and press Enter
    2. Select the folder demo

  4. Create the file ~/demo/.vscode/launch.json with the following contents:

    {
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Listen for XDebug",
      "type": "php",
      "request": "launch"
    }
  ]
}

  5. Open the file index.php

  6. Set a breakpoint on the second line

  7. Press F5 to start debugging

In your web browser

  1. Install “Xdebug helper” extension

  2. Go to http://localhost:8080/

  3. Click the extension’s icon and enable it

  4. Reload the page

The breakpoint should now be hit.

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