Xdebug + Docker Step Debugging Setup

In Development, PHP By aimand On

Note: I noticed that some of the steps are redundant. I will update this post from time to time to remove the redundant parts.

Requirements

The steps should be similar (if not identical) on different versions of PHP and Laravel.

  1. Laravel 11
  2. PHP 8.3
  3. Xdebug PHP extension version 3 (please refer to the documentation if you are still on version 2)
  4. Vscode PHP Xdebug plugin (1.35 at the time the post was written)
Name: PHP Debug
Id: xdebug.php-debug
Description: Debug support for PHP with Xdebug
Version: 1.35.0
Publisher: Xdebug
VS Marketplace Link: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=xdebug.php-debug

Step 1. Create a new Laravel application (or use an existing one)

dev$ curl -s "https://laravel.build/xdebug-demo" | bash
dev$ cd xdebug-demo
dev/xdebug-demo$ ./vendor/bin/sail up -d

Step 2: Publish Laravel Sail configurations (optional)

This is necessary if you need to modify the Dockerfile that comes with Laravel Sail or in case you need to add any dependency into the Docker image.

dev/xdebug-demo$ ./vendor/bin/sail artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sail\SailServiceProvider"

Step 3: Add Environment Variables to .env

Add the following lines to .env to override the Xdebug configuration

SAIL_XDEBUG_MODE=develop,debug,coverage
SAIL_XDEBUG_CONFIG="client_host=host.docker.internal"

Step 4: Modify docker-compose.yml

Create a file called “20-xdebug.ini” inside ./docker/php with the following content:

zend_extension=xdebug

[xdebug]
xdebug.mode=develop,debug
xdebug.client_host=host.docker.internal
xdebug.start_with_request=yes
xdebug.log=/tmp/xdebug.log

Please note the PHP version (8.3) used in these two lines. Substitute with whatever PHP version that the application requires.

services:
    laravel.test:
        build:
            # point this to the published sail config directory
            context: './docker/8.3'
          ---------- truncated ----------
        volumes:
            - '.:/var/www/html'
            # add this volume
            - './docker/php/20-xdebug.ini:/etc/php/8.3/mods-available/xdebug.ini'

Instead of exposing the Xdebug .ini file as a volume, you can also add it into the Docker image by modifying the Dockerfile

Step 5: Configure PHP Debug Extension

Open the Run and Debug panel in the sidebar and click “create a launch.json file”

Add the pathMappings property into the “Listen for Xdebug” task inside the file that pops up:

The object key should be the directory inside the container, and the object value should be the root directory of your project (NOT the public folder). In this case, we can get it automatically using the ${workspaceFolder} variable.

Step 6: Verify

First, run the Listen for Xdebug task inside the Run and Debug panel which we have configured previously.

After that, start docker compose:

xdebug-demo$ ./vendor/bin/sail up
xdebug-demo$ ./vendor/bin/sail up -d --build # in case you need to rebuild the container

Then, add a breakpoint anywhere in the code and open the application URL in your browser. The application should pause at the breakpoint that you set.

Troubleshooting

If Xdebug does not trigger the breakpoint, you can check the log inside the container at /tmp/xdebug.log

If you get this error, it means you have not set up the path mappings properly (please refer to step 5)

If it still does not work, the xdebug.start_with_request config may not be set. Try adding “?XDEBUG_TRIGGER=1” to the application URL

Summary

Full content of docker-compose.yml:

services:
    laravel.test:
        build:
            context: './docker/8.3'
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
            args:
                WWWGROUP: '${WWWGROUP}'
        image: 'sail-8.3/app'
        extra_hosts:
            - 'host.docker.internal:host-gateway'
        ports:
            - '${APP_PORT:-80}:80'
            - '${VITE_PORT:-5173}:${VITE_PORT:-5173}'
        environment:
            WWWUSER: '${WWWUSER}'
            LARAVEL_SAIL: 1
            XDEBUG_MODE: '${SAIL_XDEBUG_MODE:-off}'
            XDEBUG_CONFIG: '${SAIL_XDEBUG_CONFIG:-client_host=host.docker.internal}'
            IGNITION_LOCAL_SITES_PATH: '${PWD}'
        volumes:
            - '.:/var/www/html'
            - './docker/php/20-xdebug.ini:/etc/php/8.3/mods-available/xdebug.ini'
        networks:
            - sail
        depends_on:
            - mysql
            - redis
            - meilisearch
            - mailpit
            - selenium
    mysql:
        image: 'mysql/mysql-server:8.0'
        ports:
            - '${FORWARD_DB_PORT:-3306}:3306'
        environment:
            MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: '${DB_PASSWORD}'
            MYSQL_ROOT_HOST: '%'
            MYSQL_DATABASE: '${DB_DATABASE}'
            MYSQL_USER: '${DB_USERNAME}'
            MYSQL_PASSWORD: '${DB_PASSWORD}'
            MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: 1
        volumes:
            - 'sail-mysql:/var/lib/mysql'
            - './vendor/laravel/sail/database/mysql/create-testing-database.sh:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/10-create-testing-database.sh'
        networks:
            - sail
        healthcheck:
            test:
                - CMD
                - mysqladmin
                - ping
                - '-p${DB_PASSWORD}'
            retries: 3
            timeout: 5s
    redis:
        image: 'redis:alpine'
        ports:
            - '${FORWARD_REDIS_PORT:-6379}:6379'
        volumes:
            - 'sail-redis:/data'
        networks:
            - sail
        healthcheck:
            test:
                - CMD
                - redis-cli
                - ping
            retries: 3
            timeout: 5s
    meilisearch:
        image: 'getmeili/meilisearch:latest'
        ports:
            - '${FORWARD_MEILISEARCH_PORT:-7700}:7700'
        environment:
            MEILI_NO_ANALYTICS: '${MEILISEARCH_NO_ANALYTICS:-false}'
        volumes:
            - 'sail-meilisearch:/meili_data'
        networks:
            - sail
        healthcheck:
            test:
                - CMD
                - wget
                - '--no-verbose'
                - '--spider'
                - 'http://127.0.0.1:7700/health'
            retries: 3
            timeout: 5s
    mailpit:
        image: 'axllent/mailpit:latest'
        ports:
            - '${FORWARD_MAILPIT_PORT:-1025}:1025'
            - '${FORWARD_MAILPIT_DASHBOARD_PORT:-8025}:8025'
        networks:
            - sail
    selenium:
        image: selenium/standalone-chromium
        extra_hosts:
            - 'host.docker.internal:host-gateway'
        volumes:
            - '/dev/shm:/dev/shm'
        networks:
            - sail
networks:
    sail:
        driver: bridge
volumes:
    sail-mysql:
        driver: local
    sail-redis:
        driver: local
    sail-meilisearch:
        driver: local

Full content of launch.json:

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Listen for Xdebug",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "port": 9003,
            "pathMappings": {
                "/var/www/html": "${workspaceFolder}"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "Launch currently open script",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "port": 0,
            "runtimeArgs": [
                "-dxdebug.start_with_request=yes"
            ],
            "env": {
                "XDEBUG_MODE": "debug,develop",
                "XDEBUG_CONFIG": "client_port=${port}"
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "Launch Built-in web server",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "runtimeArgs": [
                "-dxdebug.mode=debug",
                "-dxdebug.start_with_request=yes",
                "-S",
                "localhost:0"
            ],
            "program": "",
            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "port": 9003,
            "serverReadyAction": {
                "pattern": "Development Server \\(http://localhost:([0-9]+)\\) started",
                "uriFormat": "http://localhost:%s",
                "action": "openExternally"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Full content of docker/8.3/Dockerfile (no modification):

FROM ubuntu:22.04

LABEL maintainer="Taylor Otwell"

ARG WWWGROUP
ARG NODE_VERSION=20
ARG MYSQL_CLIENT="mysql-client"
ARG POSTGRES_VERSION=15

WORKDIR /var/www/html

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
ENV TZ=UTC
ENV SUPERVISOR_PHP_COMMAND="/usr/bin/php -d variables_order=EGPCS /var/www/html/artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80"
ENV SUPERVISOR_PHP_USER="sail"

RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone

RUN echo "Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth 0;" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99custom && \
    echo "Acquire::http::No-Cache true;" >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99custom && \
    echo "Acquire::BrokenProxy    true;" >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99custom

RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y \
    && mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings \
    && apt-get install -y gnupg gosu curl ca-certificates zip unzip git supervisor sqlite3 libcap2-bin libpng-dev python2 dnsutils librsvg2-bin fswatch ffmpeg nano  \
    && curl -sS 'https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x14aa40ec0831756756d7f66c4f4ea0aae5267a6c' | gpg --dearmor | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/ppa_ondrej_php.gpg > /dev/null \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/ppa_ondrej_php.gpg] https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu jammy main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ppa_ondrej_php.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y php8.3-cli php8.3-dev \
       php8.3-pgsql php8.3-sqlite3 php8.3-gd \
       php8.3-curl \
       php8.3-imap php8.3-mysql php8.3-mbstring \
       php8.3-xml php8.3-zip php8.3-bcmath php8.3-soap \
       php8.3-intl php8.3-readline \
       php8.3-ldap \
       php8.3-msgpack php8.3-igbinary php8.3-redis \
       php8.3-memcached php8.3-pcov php8.3-imagick php8.3-xdebug php8.3-swoole \
    && curl -sLS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/bin/ --filename=composer \
    && curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_$NODE_VERSION.x nodistro main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y nodejs \
    && npm install -g npm \
    && npm install -g pnpm \
    && npm install -g bun \
    && curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | gpg --dearmor | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/yarn.gpg >/dev/null \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/yarn.gpg] https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list \
    && curl -sS https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | gpg --dearmor | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/pgdg.gpg >/dev/null \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/pgdg.gpg] http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt jammy-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y yarn \
    && apt-get install -y $MYSQL_CLIENT \
    && apt-get install -y postgresql-client-$POSTGRES_VERSION \
    && apt-get -y autoremove \
    && apt-get clean \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/*

RUN setcap "cap_net_bind_service=+ep" /usr/bin/php8.3

RUN groupadd --force -g $WWWGROUP sail
RUN useradd -ms /bin/bash --no-user-group -g $WWWGROUP -u 1337 sail

COPY start-container /usr/local/bin/start-container
COPY supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf
COPY php.ini /etc/php/8.3/cli/conf.d/99-sail.ini
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/start-container

EXPOSE 80/tcp

ENTRYPOINT ["start-container"]

Container environment variables:

sail@15850a79eaa6:/var/www/html$ env
XDEBUG_MODE=develop,debug,coverage
HOSTNAME=15850a79eaa6
LARAVEL_SAIL=1
PWD=/var/www/html
SUPERVISOR_PHP_COMMAND=/usr/bin/php -d variables_order=EGPCS /var/www/html/artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80
TZ=UTC
XDEBUG_CONFIG=client_host=host.docker.internal
HOME=/home/sail
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=00:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arc=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lha=01;31:*.lz4=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.tzo=01;31:*.t7z=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lrz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.lzo=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.zst=01;31:*.tzst=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.war=01;31:*.ear=01;31:*.sar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.alz=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.cab=01;31:*.wim=01;31:*.swm=01;31:*.dwm=01;31:*.esd=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.mjpg=01;35:*.mjpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.webm=01;35:*.webp=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.m4a=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.opus=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:
WWWUSER=501
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
IGNITION_LOCAL_SITES_PATH=/Users/ad/Development/xdebug-demo
TERM=xterm
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
SHLVL=1
SUPERVISOR_PHP_USER=sail
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
_=/usr/bin/env
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