Configure Xdebug

Check Xdebug installation

1. Press Control+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | PHP.

2. Check the Xdebug installation associated with the selected PHP interpreter:

   1. On the PHP page, choose the relevant PHP installation from the CLI Interpreter list and click next to the field. The list shows all the PHP installations available in IntelliJ IDEA, see Configuring Local PHP Interpreters and Configuring Remote PHP Interpreters.

   2. The CLI Interpreters dialog that opens shows the following:

      • The version of the selected PHP installation.

      • The name and version of the debugging engine associated with the selected PHP installation (Xdebug or Zend Debugger). If no debugger is configured, IntelliJ IDEA shows the corresponding message:

        

   Alternatively, open the Installation Wizard, paste the output of the phpinfo(), and click Analyze my phpinfo() output. Learn more about checking the Xdebug installation in Validate the configuration of a debugging engine.

Define Xdebug behaviour

1. In the IDE settings (Control+Alt+S), select Debug under the PHP node to open the Debug page.

2. In the Xdebug area, specify the following settings:

   • Debug port: appoint the port through which the tool will communicate with IntelliJ IDEA.

     This must be the same port number as specified in the php.ini file:

     xdebug.client_port="<the port (9003 by default) to which Xdebug connects>"

     xdebug.remote_port="<the port (9000 by default) to which Xdebug connects>"

     By default, Xdebug 2 listens on port 9000. For Xdebug 3, the default port has changed from 9000 to 9003. You can specify several ports by separating them with a comma. By default, the Debug port value is set to 9000,9003 to have IntelliJ IDEA listen on both ports simultaneously.

     To have IntelliJ IDEA accept any incoming connections from Xdebug engine through the port specified in the Debug port field, select the Can accept external connections checkbox.

   • Resolve breakpoint if it's not available on the current line (Xdebug 2.8+): the selected checkbox enables support for the Xdebug breakpoints resolving mechanism. Under this mechanism, the debugger evaluates whether PHP can generate internal executable bytecode for the current line. If there is no such code on the line that the breakpoint refers to, the corresponding breakpoint cannot be hit. Xdebug will scan up to 5 subsequent lines, stop at the line where executable code is located, and update the breakpoint definition to this line.

   • Force break at first line when no path mapping specified: the selected checkbox makes the debugger stop as soon as it reaches and opens a file that is not mapped to any file in the project on the Servers page. The debugger stops at the first line of this file and Examine/update variables shows the following error message: Cannot find a local copy of the file on server <path to the file on the server> and a link Click to set up mappings. Click the link to open the Resolve Path Mappings Problem dialog and map the problem file to its local copy.

     When this checkbox is cleared, the debugger does not stop upon reaching and opening an unmapped file, the file is just processed, and no error messages are displayed.

   • Move breakpoint to resolved position if it's different from the source: the selected checkbox enables automated adjustment of the breakpoint position to the line where Xdebug actually stops after resolving the breakpoint.

     Note that the feature works only when the Resolve breakpoint if it's not available on the current line (Xdebug 2.8+) checkbox is enabled.

   • Force break at first line when a script is outside the project: the selected checkbox makes the debugger stop at the first line as soon as it reaches and opens a file outside the current project. With this checkbox cleared, the debugger continues upon opening a file outside the current project.

   • Enable return function value debugging (Xdebug 3.2+): the selected checkbox adds an extra debugging step for inspection of return values in functions that return them immediately without storing in intermediate variables.

3. In the External connections area, specify how you want IntelliJ IDEA to treat connections received from hosts and through ports that are not registered as deployment server configurations.

   • Ignore external connections through unregistered server configurations: select this checkbox to have IntelliJ IDEA ignore connections received from hosts and through ports that are not registered as deployment server configurations. When this checkbox is selected, IntelliJ IDEA does not attempt to create a deployment server configuration automatically.

   • Break at first line in PHP scripts: select this checkbox to have the debugger stop as soon as connection between it and IntelliJ IDEA is established (instead of running automatically until the first breakpoint is reached). Alternatively turn on the Run | Break at first line in PHP scripts option from the main menu.

   • Max. simultaneous connections: use this spin box to limit the number of external connections that can be processed simultaneously.

1. Disable Xdebug for command-line scripts:

   1. In the Settings dialog (Control+Alt+S), go to PHP under Languages & Frameworks.

   2. From the PHP executable list, choose the relevant PHP interpreter and click next to it. In the CLI Interpreters dialog that opens, click the Open in Editor link next to the Configuration file: <path to php.ini> file. Close all the dialogs and switch to the tab where the php.ini file is opened.

   3. In the php.ini file, find the [xdebug] section and comment the following line in it by adding ; in preposition:

      ;[xdebug] ;zend_extension = "<path to xdebug extension>"

   4. Open the CLI Interpreters dialog and click next to the PHP executable field. IntelliJ IDEA informs you that debugger is not installed:

      

2. To enable IntelliJ IDEA to activate Xdebug when it is necessary, specify the path to it in the Debugger extension field, in the Additional area. Type the path manually or click and select the location in the dialog that opens.