How to Debug PHP Script From the CLI with PHP-XDEBUG

TL;DR

1. Set your IDE to listen for incoming connections
2. On the CLI set the session key,

   export XDEBUG_CONFIG="idekey=netbeans-xdebug"
   # or
   export XDEBUG_CONFIG="idekey=PHPSTORM"
   

3. Set XDEBUG configuration (can be set as environment variables or in-line parameters)

   # in-line
   php -dxdebug.remote_enable=1 -dxdebug.remote_mode=req -dxdebug.remote_port=9000 \
       -dxdebug.remote_host=127.0.0.1 -dxdebug.remote_connect_back=0 /path/to/script.php
   
   # Using an environment variable
   export XDEBUG_CONFIG="remote_enable=1 remote_mode=req remote_port=9000 remote_host=127.0.0.1 remote_connect_back=0"
   # Next, start our script like we would normally do:
   php /path/to/script.php
   

   PS. set remote_host IP to the machine which run the IDE which listen for incoming connections. You can learn how to use ssh to tunnel back the connection from a remote machine back to your local machine.

4. with PHPSTORM set the IDE config to use

   export PHP_IDE_CONFIG="serverName=SomeName"

Resources

• Starting a Debugging Session from the Command Line | Start the Script with Debugger Options
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2944880/debugging-php-cli-scripts-with-xdebug-and-netbeans