How to pass custom config options for xdebug settings in PhpStorm?

Question

In order to solve another problem, I want to manually provide certain configuration options for the Run Debug configuration.

In PhpStorm, at

Settings > PHP > Debug > Settings

there is a flag for

Pass require configuration options through command line (still need to enable debug extension manually)

For troubleshooting purposes, I disabled that flag, yet I don't see where to add my custom configuration options instead.

How to add custom configuration options?

I want to provide custom values for the flags:

How to?

You can pass additional params to your PHP interpreter at PHP Interpreter screen (jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/… -- see the "Configuration options" field on Step #5 screenshot). The -d option will be used for them. Params added there will take over what PhpStorm actually detects for Xdebug (as they will be added later in the command line). — LazyOne
– LazyOne, Commented Aug 28, 2024 at 12:04
NOTE: Since it's a PHP Interpreter options, they will be used in CLI environment only. Means: will not affect your Apache/nginx/etc web server but will be used for CLI commands, PHPUnit tests, PHP's built-in web server and similar -- any tools where PHP executable can be used directly by the IDE. — LazyOne
– LazyOne, Commented Aug 28, 2024 at 12:05

k0pernikus · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-28 10:07:54Z

2

These config options are read through the php.ini within your WSL instance.

Add this in your relevant php.ini or 20-xdebug.ini, e.g.: /etc/php/8.3/cli/conf.d/20-xdebug.ini:

zend_extension=xdebug.so
xdebug.client_host=xdebug://gateway
xdebug.mode=debug
xdebug.client_port=9003

Addendum: I also had the use case to get xdebug working both on fpm and cli.

The default is to create an ini template in:

/etc/php/8.x/mods-available/xdebug.ini

This will symlink the template file in the respective cli and fpm subfolder via:

phpenmod -v 8.x xdebug

(Replace x with your relevant minor php version.)

Addendum 2:

I also wanted to be able to trigger an xdebug session on cli via

$ XDEBUG_TRIGGER=1 ./somePhpFile.php

For that I added:

xdebug.start_with_request=trigger

to the xdebug.ini file.

edited yesterday

answered Aug 28, 2024 at 11:54

k0pernikus

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