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Xdebug on Windows#

To debug PHP applications with PHP Tools for Visual Studio Code, it is necessary to install and enable Xdebug extension.

With installer#

XAMPP or WAMPP will install and configure PHP, Xdebug and Apache server.

Adding Xdebug to existing PHP installation#

If you already have PHP installed, but missing Xdebug, download binaries directly from Xdebug

Choose the version depending on your PHP version. You can use the tool provided by Xdebug developers: Xdebug Wizard. Copy and paste your phpinfo() function output or output of php -i command. The tool will give you the correct version to download.

Copy downloaded binaries into the PHP extensions folder(ext sub-folder of the PHP installation).

Configuring Xdebug#

You will need to edit PHP Configuration file

You can locate it by running the following command:

php --ini

The command will output similar lines: 

Configuration File (php.ini) Path:
Loaded Configuration File:         C:\Program Files\PHP\v8.1\php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: (none)
Additional .ini files parsed:      (none)

Open the php.ini file and make sure the following lines are present:

[XDEBUG]
zend_extension="C:\Program Files\PHP\v8.1\ext\php_xdebug.dll"
xdebug.mode=debug
xdebug.client_host = 127.0.0.1
xdebug.client_port = 9003
xdebug.start_with_request=trigger

Alter the path to php_xdebug.dll according to your PHP installation and make sure it's an absolute path.

Optionally you can switch xdebug.start_with_request to yes (in Xdebug 2 it was xdebug.remote_autostart = 1). This option will instruct Xdebug to contact IDE on each request. By default Xdebug initiates the debug session only when it's instructed to, e.g. when URL has XDEBUG_SESSION_START query parameter, which might complicate scenarios like debugging AJAX requests.

Verify the installation#

Verify the installation by running the following command:

php -v

The output should indicate both PHP and Xdebug are installed:

PHP 8.1.0 (cli) (built: Nov 23 2021 21:46:10) (NTS Visual C++ 2019 x64)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.1.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Xdebug v3.1.1, Copyright (c) 2002-2021, by Derick Rethans

See Also#