XDebug is a useful tool for debugging PHP applications, but it uses extra memory and CPU for every request, so is disabled by default.

To enable XDebug, do the following in config.yml:

• Change php_xdebug_default_enable (and, optionally, php_xdebug_coverage_enable to get code coverage reports) to 1
• Make sure xdebug is in the list of installed_extras

If you don't need to use XDebug, you can comment it out or remove it from installed_extras before you vagrant up Drupal VM.

PHPStorm and XDebug with Drupal VM¶

To use XDebug with PHPStorm, change the php_xdebug_idekey variable as shown below in config.yml, and then run vagrant provision to reconfigure the VM:

php_xdebug_idekey: PHPSTORM

Sublime Text and XDebug with Drupal VM¶

To use XDebug with Sublime Text, change the php_xdebug_idekey variable as shown below in config.yml, and then run vagrant provision to reconfigure the VM:

php_xdebug_idekey: sublime.xdebug

To configure a Sublime Text project to use XDebug when debugging, add the following settings key to your project's .sublime-project file:

 "settings": {
   "xdebug": {
     "path_mapping": {
       "/var/www/projectname/docroot" : "/Users/geerlingguy/Sites/projectname/docroot",
     },
     "url": "http://local.projectname.com/",
     "super_globals": true,
     "close_on_stop": true
   }
 }

This assumes you have already installed SublimeTextXdebug via Package Control.

NetBeans and XDebug with Drupal VM¶

To use XDebug with NetBeans, change the php_xdebug_idekey variable as shown below in config.yml, and then run vagrant provision to reconfigure the VM.

php_xdebug_idekey: netbeans-xdebug

Atom and XDebug with Drupal VM¶

To use XDebug with Atom, change the php_xdebug_idekey variable as shown below in config.yml, and then run vagrant provision to reconfigure the VM.

php_xdebug_idekey: xdebug-atom

Eclipse and XDebug with Drupal VM¶

To use XDebug with Eclipse, change the php_xdebug_idekey variable as shown below in config.yml, and then run vagrant provision to reconfigure the VM.

php_xdebug_idekey: ECLIPSE_DBGP

Visual Studio Code and XDebug with Drupal VM¶

To use XDebug with Visual Studio Code, change the php_xdebug_idekey variable as shown below in config.yml, and then run vagrant provision to reconfigure the VM.

php_xdebug_idekey: VSCODE

XDebug over SSH/Drush¶

As long as xdebug is listed in installed_extras Drupal VM is configured to accept the PHP_IDE_CONFIG, XDEBUG_CONFIG and PHP_OPTIONS environment variables over SSH and this can be used to set up some IDE's as well as enable XDebug on a per request basis:

PHP_OPTIONS="-d xdebug.default_enable=1" drush @drupalvm.drupalvm migrate-import

To send the environment variables when using vagrant ssh, create a Vagrantfile.local with:

config.ssh.forward_env = ['PHP_IDE_CONFIG', 'XDEBUG_CONFIG', 'PHP_OPTIONS']

And you can run:

XDEBUG_CONFIG="-d default_enable=1" vagrant ssh -c 'php /var/www/drupalvm/drupal/web/core/scripts/run-tests.sh --url http://drupalvm.test --all'
XDEBUG_CONFIG="-d default_enable=1" vagrant ssh -c 'cd /var/www/drupalvm/drupal/web/core; php ../../vendor/bin/phpunit tests/Drupal/Tests/Core/Password/PasswordHashingTest.php'

Profiling code with XDebug¶

While most people use XDebug only for debugging purposes, you can also use it for profiling. It's not as commonly used for profiling as either Blackfire or XHProf, but it works!

Note: You should only enable one code profiler at a time—e.g. when using Blackfire, disable XHProf, Tideways and XDebug.

For a list of available role variables, see the geerlingguy.php-xdebug Ansible role's README.