Unable to get XDebug working in Visual Studio Code

Question

I am trying to get XDebug working with Visual Studio Code on Windows 10. I have Apache/PHP server running on my local machine (Apache/2.4.41 (Win64) PHP/7.3.9RC1). It works without any problem. I have Visual Studio Code running on the same machine. I've installed PHP XDebug 1.13 in it. I have a small test script in the htdocs directory. I set a couple of breakpoints and launch the debugger and get this in the Debug Console...

<- launchResponse
Response {
  seq: 0,
  type: 'response',
  request_seq: 2,
  command: 'launch',
  success: true }

I then switch to Chrome which, at that moment, has an arrow-hourglass so I can tell something is trying to work. I refresh the page and the debugger does not stop at the breakpoints.

I've read through a bunch of posts already. Here's the relevant entries in my php.ini file...

[XDebug]
xdebug.stopOnEntry = true
xdebug.remote_host = "127.0.0.1"
xdebug.remote_port=9001
xdebug.remote_connect_back=1
xdebug.remote_enable = 1
xdebug.remote_autorestart = 1
zend_extension = "d:/php/ext/php_xdebug-2.7.2-7.3-vc15-x86_64.dll"

Here's my current launch.json file...

{
    // 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": 9001,
            "hostname": "127.0.0.1",
            "log": true,
         },
        {
            "name": "Launch currently open script",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "port": 9001,


        }
    ]
}

I've tried:

Turning off the firewall
Changing the port number
Using "localhost" or 127.0.0.1 in both the URL and php.ini (I've made sure to always reboot Apache after making any php.ini file changes.)
I've gradually added more settings (which you can see in the php.ini and the launch.json but the behavior hasn't changed...launching the debugger causes an arrow-hourglass for about ten seconds. I keep refreshing the webpage but it just runs through the script without stopping.

Here's my test script...

<?php
$a = 3;
$b = 19;
$c = $a + $b;
echo "Answer: $c";
?>

I, obviously, expect the debugger to stop at the first breakpoint (which is on the line "$a = 3;" It doesn't. I've tried adding more breakpoints. The browser goes straight to the answer "Answer: 22"

One other thing, I tried entering echo "1" in the prompt at the bottom of the Debug Console and got this:

echo "1"
Cannot evaluate code without a connection
-> evaluateRequest
{ command: 'evaluate',
  arguments: { expression: 'echo "1"', context: 'repl' },
  type: 'request',
  seq: 3 }

So I'm guessing that the web server is not connecting. I've checked the error.log file but there are no errors...no indications of anything related to debugging or connections.

NOTE: I opened inbound and outbound ports on the firewall and ran netstat -ano and verified that port 9001 is being listened on...

 TCP    127.0.0.1:9001         0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       16144

Any help would be MUCH appreciated!!

1) Check `phpinfo()`; output to ensure that Xdebug is there and uses correct settings (check it via web page -- same way as you planning to debug the code) 2) Enable Xdebug log and see what it will write there (if it tries to connect at all) — LazyOne, Aug 26 '19 at 00:41
In phpinfo()... This program makes use of the Zend Scripting Language Engine: Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies with Xdebug v2.7.2, Copyright (c) 2002-2019, by Derick Rethans In xdebug.log,.. [20356] Log opened at 2019-08-26 01:36:50 [20356] I: Checking remote connect back address. [20356] I: Checking header 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'. [20356] I: Checking header 'REMOTE_ADDR'. [20356] I: Remote address found, connecting to ::1:9001. [20356] E: Time-out connecting to client (Waited: 200 ms). :-( [20356] Log closed at 2019-08-26 01:36:50 [20356] — Gregg Seipp, Aug 26 '19 at 01:37
I seem to have found the solution in this post: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11563280/php-remote-debugging-xdebug-cant-connect-to-jetbrains-php-storm-client The clue was the ::1:9001 line. I googled and found someone that suggested "localhost" wasn't being resolved. I do have localhost in my hosts file with the proper IP address, along with 2 more virtual servers. When I tried xdebug.remote_host = "127.0.0.1" in php.ini this time it worked.. The bad news is I need to use the virtual host names. So the question now is, why isn't it finding the IP address from my hosts file? — Gregg Seipp, Aug 26 '19 at 01:55
1) `::1:9001` is IPv6 for localhost and `127.0.0.1` is IPv4 for the same. In your OS setup IPv6 seems to have priority over IPv4; 2) You have `xdebug.remote_connect_back=1` which means that the value from `xdebug.remote_host` is IGNORED or only used if no IP detected from request headers. If you need to use "virtual host names" then disable "connect_back" option. — LazyOne, Aug 26 '19 at 08:15
I did remove the xdebug.remote_connect_back=1 but still can't use the virtual host. Perhaps I should disable IPv6? — Gregg Seipp, Aug 26 '19 at 11:22
Try that .. or make IPv4 as priority over v6, if there is a way of specifying address resolving. From your `netstat` output your VSCode listens on IPv4 only .. so it needs to use IPv4 addresses anyway. *"why isn't it finding the IP address from my hosts file"* If the host name is written in actual `hosts` file then it should take it from there and not from any DNS server, even local (at least that's how stuff normally works on Windows). — LazyOne, Aug 26 '19 at 12:15
Try `ping your.domain.name` and see to what address it resolves. — LazyOne, Aug 26 '19 at 12:19
I do seem to have it working. I installed it on a second machine but ONLY got it working once I installed the Chrome XDebug Helper (I'd had it installed on the first machine as well). I have no idea why that works. — Gregg Seipp, Aug 28 '19 at 00:36

Silas Palmer · Answer 1 · 2022-02-23T23:15:25.427

Here's the launch.json I used to get this working on my Windows + Windows Linux Subsystem (Ubuntu) setup.

{
    // 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": 9000,                
            "stopOnEntry": true, // Once working, comment out this line
            "pathMappings": {
                // eg your web files in C:\Path\To\Code
                "/mnt/c/Path/To/Code": "${workspaceFolder}"
            },
            "log": true            
        },
        {
            "name": "Launch currently open script",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "port": 9000
        }
    ]
}

and my xdebug.ini is:

zend_extension=xdebug.so
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_autostart=1

https://stackoverflow.com/users/1675523/chudasamachirag made the point that above .ini is for xdebug2, xdebug.ini for xDebug3 is: `zend_extension=xdebug.so` `[Xdebug]` `xdebug.mode=debug` `xdebug.start_with_request=yes` [1]: https://xdebug.org/docs/upgrade_guide#changed-xdebug.remote_autostart — Silas Palmer, Feb 23 '22 at 23:11

Unable to get XDebug working in Visual Studio Code

1 Answers1