XDebug over SSH into Container with VSCode

Written by James McDonald

January 3, 2021

My Layout

I’m connecting from VSCode running on Windows 10 Pro to the Linux host via SSH. The Linux Host has the project files and there is a docker container running on the Linux Host which provides the LAMP stack development environment.

This is how I got XDebug working

VSCode Xdebug Session

+---------------------------------------+
|  Windows 10 Pro with VSCode Installed |
+-------------10.19.80.115--------------+
                    |
                   SSH
                connection
                    |
   +----------10.97.30.108------------+
   |   Linux Host with project files  |
   |  /home/jm/onedrive/sites/100pbc  |
   |                |                 |
   |    +---------Docker---------+    |
   |    |       172.17.0.1       |    |
   |    |           |            |    |
   |    |     docker network     |    |
   |    |           |            |    |
   |    |       172.17.0.2       |    |
   |    |  [ Docker container ]  |    |
   |    |                        |    |
   |    +------------------------+    |
   +----------------------------------+

Project files on Linux host: /home/jm/onedrive/sites/100pbc
Path to project files in docker container: /var/www/100pbc

VSCode Extensions

  • VScode instance running on Windows 10 Pro install the PHP Debug extension by Felix Becker ext install php-debug
  • You also need "Visual Studio Code Remote Development Extension Pack" to allow for SSH to remote host

XDebug

In the docker container compile and install Xdebug 3

Use the install instructions that come in the php-debug extension in VSCode

PHP Debug Xdebug Install Instructions

Add the following to /etc/php/7.4/apache/php.ini and /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini in the Docker container. Adding the configuration to both the apache and cli areas allows you to debug your tests from the command line as well as get debbugging information when navigating your site via a browser.

Note: Make sure you restart the container when you make changes.

Set xdebug.client_host to the docker IP address of the Linux host

**Note: ** xdebug.remote_host didn’t seem to work perhaps it is an old version 2 setting. But xdebug.client_host did.

[xdebug]
xdebug.mode = debug
xdebug.remote_enable = 1
; xdebug.remote_connect_back = 1
; xdebug.remote_host = 172.17.0.1
; this 
xdebug.client_host=172.17.0.1
xdebug.idekey = "VSCODE"
xdebug.client_port = 9000
xdebug.remote_autostart = 1
xdebug.start_with_request = yes
xdebug.log=/tmp/xdebug-local.log

Check your setup by adding a file with phpinfo(); into somewhere accessible to your containers Webserver. You should see XDebug listed

Xdebug phpinfo

Configure launch.json

/home/jm/onedrive/sites/100pbc/.vscode/launch.json on the remote linux host

hostname: is set so the XDebug client in VSCode will listen to the docker IPv4 Address of the Linux host

{
    // 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,
            "hostname": "172.17.0.1",
            "pathMappings": {
                "/var/www/100pbc/": "${workspaceRoot}/"
            },
           "log": true
        },
        {
            "name": "Launch currently open script",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "port": 9000
        }
    ]
}

Troubleshooting

If you have done the above and your break-points are not being hit

Check that the pathMappings settings map to real files in both the container and on the SSH’d host

Container Path

/var/www/100pbc/src/Controller/PagesController.php <= this needs to exist

SSH Host Path

The workspaceRoot is the folder you have open in VSCode

${workspaceRoot}/src/Controller/PagesController.php

/home/jmcd/dev/project1/src/Controller/PagesController.php <= this needs to exist

{  
   "configurations": [
        {
            // ... other settings
            "pathMappings": {
                "/var/www/100pbc/": "${workspaceRoot}/"
            },
        },
}

9 Comments

  1. very grateful developer

    Your article should have more comments! I couldn’t find anywhere a way to make it work this layout!

    Reply
  2. Thang TD

    My VSCode listen to xdebug already but still cannot capture the breakpoint.

    In xdebug-local.log return this message:
    [Step Debug] ->

    [30] [Step Debug] ->

    Sorry about my English

    Reply
    • James McDonald

      xin chào b?n c?a tôi

      This could be docker network settings.

      The xdebug.client_host=172.17.0.1 might be incorrectly point at the wrong IP for your docker network

      Run the following on the computer with the container

      docker inspect --format='{{json .NetworkSettings.Networks}}' name| jq
      Replace “name” with your container name or id


      {
      "bridge": {
      "IPAMConfig": null,
      "Links": null,
      "Aliases": null,
      "NetworkID": "41013fa7e9e68cfa428d79a4475b09d41fd93b108d8910c98bfbd3000c30f8bf",
      "EndpointID": "240e27e84e46d5f56ae773afd58d9b835c4e5064c01cc2d434c5fd8b9a8d855a",
      "Gateway": "172.17.0.1",
      "IPAddress": "172.17.0.17",
      "IPPrefixLen": 16,
      "IPv6Gateway": "",
      "GlobalIPv6Address": "",
      "GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
      "MacAddress": "02:42:ac:11:00:07",
      "DriverOpts": null
      }
      }

      It should output which network your container is on and the container IP and Gateway IP Addresses then change your xdebug.client_host= value to have the Gateway IP.

      Reply
      • Thang TD

        The command return this
        {
        …,
        “Gateway”:”172.23.0.1″,
        “IPAddress”:”172.23.0.6″,
        …,
        }
        So I fix php.ini:
        xdebug.client_host=172.23.0.1

        and launch.json
        “hostname”: “172.23.0.1”,

        I restart my service php-apache in container but still have the same error

        Reply
        • Thang TD

          I add more breakpoint in VSCode then more logs appear in xdebug-logs inside container. So I think IP is OK, but breakpoint is not. I cannot be captured and become unverified break-point.

          Reply
      • Thang TD

        I release in launch.json I have error when mapping container folder and remote folder. My debug work well now. Thanks for many help. This topic is very useful

        Reply
        • James McDonald

          Glad you fixed it Thang. I have done that myself. Thanks for posting your answer

          Will update my post to include that gotcha

          Reply

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