IntelliJ IDEA 2018.3 Help

Configuring Local PHP Interpreters

A local PHP interpreter is a PHP engine installed on your computer opposite to a remote PHP interpreters that can be installed on a remote host or in a virtual environment set up in a Vagrant instance.

  1. Open the Settings / Preferences Dialog by pressing Ctrl+Alt+S or by choosing File | Settings for Windows and Linux or IntelliJ IDEA | Preferences for macOS, and click PHP under Languages & Frameworks.

  2. On the PHP page that opens, click the browseButton button next to the CLI Interpreter list.

  3. In the CLI Interpreters dialog that opens, click Add icons general add svg in the left-hand pane, then choose Local on the context menu. If you already have a local interpreter configured in IntelliJ IDEA, it is also shown on the menu and the menu item changes to Other Local.

  4. In the right-hand pane of the dialog box, specify the PHP interpreter's settings.
    1. In the Name text box, type the identifier to distinguish the interpreter from others, for example, php_installation_<version>.

    2. Specify the PHP engine installation directory in the PHP Home field. Type the path manually or click Browse browseButton   and choose the location in the Choose PHP Home dialog box, that opens.

      IntelliJ IDEA displays the version of the PHP engine detected in the specified folder and the debugger associated with this PHP engine in the php.ini file.

  5. Optionally, you can customize the configuration settings of the Java installation in the Additional area of the CLI Interpreters dialog.

    • In the Debugger extension field, specify the path to Xdebug. This enables IntelliJ IDEA to activate Xdebug when it is necessary if you have disabled it in the php.ini file, see Configuring Xdebug for Using in the On-Demand Mode.

    • In the Configuration options field, compose a string of configuration directives to be passed through the -d command line option and thus add new entries to the php.ini file. The directives specified in this field override the default directives generated by IntelliJ IDEA, such as -dxdebug.remote_enable=1, -dxdebug.remote_host=127.0.0.1, -dxdebug.remote_port=9001, -dxdebug.remote_mode=req.

      For example, if you specify the -dxdebug.remote_mode=jit directive it will override the default -dxdebug.remote_mode=req directive and thus switch Xdebug to the Just-In-Time (JIT) mode, see Debugging in the Just-In-Time Mode for details.

      To do that, click Browse Open next to the Configuration options field, and then create a list of entries in the Configuration Options dialog that opens.

      • To add a new entry, click the Add button icons general add svg. In the new line, that is added to the list, specify the name of the new entry and its value in the Name and Value text boxes respectively.

        You can add as many entries as you need, just keep in mind that they will be transformed into a command line with its length limited to 256 characters.

      • To delete an entry, select it in the list and click the Remove button icons general remove svg.

      • To change the order of entries, use the Up icons actions previousOccurence svg and Down icons actions nextOccurence svg buttons.

      Upon clicking OK, you return to the CLI Interpreters dialog, where the entries are transformed into a command line.

  6. Click the Show phpinfo button to have IntelliJ IDEA display a separate information window with the installation details and the list of loaded extensions and configured options. Please note that the additional options specified in the Configuration Options field of the CLI Interpreters dialog are not listed.

Last modified: 1 February 2019