PHP in Gitpod

Gitpod supports PHP right out of the box, but more advanced features such as debugging can be configured, so here is how to do it!

Example Repositories

Debugging PHP in Gitpod

The PHP Debug extension allows debugging PHP applications from within Gitpod.

To get this extension for your project, you must do two things:

First, you must create a .gitpod.Dockerfile for your repository:

FROM gitpod/workspace-full

RUN sudo apt-get update -q     && sudo apt-get install -y php-dev

RUN wget http://xdebug.org/files/xdebug-2.9.1.tgz     && tar -xvzf xdebug-2.9.1.tgz     && cd xdebug-2.9.1     && phpize     && ./configure     && make     && sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/php/20190902     && sudo cp modules/xdebug.so /usr/lib/php/20190902     && sudo bash -c "echo -e '\nzend_extension = /usr/lib/php/20190902/xdebug.so\n[XDebug]\nxdebug.remote_enable = 1\nxdebug.remote_autostart = 1\n' >> /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini"

Second, reference the above Dockerfile in a .gitpod.yml file, and then also install the extension, like so:

image:
  file: .gitpod.Dockerfile
# This is to get rid of the annoying popup feel free to leave this out
ports:
  - port: 9000
    onOpen: ignore
vscode:
  extensions:
    - felixfbecker.php-debug@1.13.0:WX8Y3EpQk3zgahy41yJtNQ==

Next create a new directory called .theia and in that directory add a file called launch.json and add the following content.

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "php",
      "name": "Launch",
      "request": "launch",
      "stopOnEntry": true,
      "program": "${file}",
      "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
      "externalConsole": false
    }
  ]
}

Then have fun debugging PHP

Finally, here is a full example repository containing the complete Gitpod PHP debug configuration described above. You can try it by clicking here:

PECL Package Manager

Gitpod’s default workspace image also comes with the PECL package manager pre-installed. To install packages with it, you must use sudo pecl install <EXTENSION> in your repository’s .gitpod.Dockerfile, e.g. like so:

FROM gitpod/workspace-full

RUN sudo pecl channel-update pecl.php.net &&     sudo pecl install <EXTENSION>

where <EXTENSION> is the PHP extension you want to install, e.g. xdebug.

Further Reading

• Gitpodifying a new Laravel Application by Etin Obaseki