Using xdebug with PhpStorm

Question

I can't get my PhpStorm IDE to work with xdebug.

My current setup is the following:

PhpStorm 2017.1.4
MacOS Sierra 10.12.5

Here are the steps that I followed.

I have installed php with the following command. I have added the postgres parameter because I need it later to connect to a PostgreSQL database.

brew install php71 --with-postgresql

The next step is to install XDebug with the following command

brew install php71-xdebug

So the next step that I got from the documentation (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/configuring-xdebug.html) is to edit the php.ini file with the following content:

[Xdebug]
zend_extension="<path to php_xdebug.dll>"
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_port="<the port for Xdebug to listen to>" (the default port is 9000)
xdebug.profiler_enable=1
xdebug.profiler_output_dir="<AMP home\tmp>"

Just some questions about those fields and XDebug.

So I guess XDebug is some kind of service that runs on the remote_port and that PhpStorm is using to write data to? Or do you have to specify the port where the application you want to test is running?
What exactly is the profiler thing? And can the output dir be anything I can choose?

So this is my php.ini file that I think it should be:

[xdebug]
zend_extension="/usr/local/Cellar/php71-xdebug/2.5.4/xdebug.so"
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_host=localhost
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.profiler_enable=1
xdebug.profiler_output_dir="/usr/tmp"

That's it for the php.ini. So I have to check the settings in my PhpStorm IDE. And those are the following:

So that is my setup. In my project I just have one index.php with <?php echo phpinfo(); ?> I just click the Chrome icon so it opens directly in the browser to check if XDebug is there. I see the following result.

So I thought to myself ok let's try some debugging. So I changed my index.php file to the following

$i = 2;
$j = $i + 2;
echo $j

I've put a breakpoint on the 2nd line. And when I run it, it never stops at the breakpoint. What is needed to do that or am I wrong in my configuration somewhere?

Answering your question about how XDebug connects during remote debug. When your app is running with XDebug configured, it's connects to `remote_host`:`remote_port` and sends data there. So, PHPStorm here is a service who listens for XDebug connection — Sergei Kasatkin, Jun 07 '17 at 13:47
The first section of [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/39095146/4265352) explains how an XDebug session works. — axiac, Jun 07 '17 at 13:49
you will need `xdebug.idekey=PHPStorm` and `xdebug.remote_mode=req` in your .ini file and then start listening to PHP Debugging Connection in PHP Storm. And also to start from the browser the Xdebug helper. — Edwin, Jun 07 '17 at 13:52
Thanks @axiac, that gives some better insight in how it works — koala, Jun 07 '17 at 14:14
@Edwin Thanks for the tip about the XDebug Chrome extension that made it work. Didn't need to include the 2 extra php.ini lines... — koala, Jun 07 '17 at 14:15
do you use php-fpm in your stack ? If yes, change the port 9000 which is also the default port for fpm. Also, you should have a xdebug.log somewhere, and look there to see what is happening. If you configure a xdebug.log, absolutely make certain that the apache process (_www:_www) has write privileges to that. Finally, if you are using this to create/test a restful api, bump up the number of simultaneous connections. — YvesLeBorg, Jun 07 '17 at 15:16

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '17 at 13:49

To make Xdebug remote debugging working on your page, you need to set a cookie in your browser, telling the server you want to debug the page, there are many extensions for that, the most known is Xdebug helper in Chrome.

I also suggest you to follow this tutorial Zero-configuration debugging, it is very detailed and clear IMO.

If you still have problems i'll try to help you with pleasure :)

Using xdebug with PhpStorm

1 Answers1