VisualStudio Code PHP executablePath in docker - php

Question

I try to configure VSCode to use our php executable inside a docker container. Firstly i tried it on a macintosh and everything works as expected. At work we use windows pc´s and i cant get it to work.
Workspace Settings
"php.suggest.basic": false,
"php.executablePath": "C:\\Source\\stack\\.bin\\php.bat",
"php.validate.executablePath": "C:\\Source\\stack\\.bin\\php.bat",
"php.validate.run": "onSave",
"php.validate.enable": true
I tried to set a .sh, .exe or .bat file but none of them seemed to work.
php.bat
#echo off
docker run -i stack_php php %*
php.sh
#!/bin/sh
docker run stack_php php "$#"
return $?
Anybody of you can help me get this to work? We would like to change our IDE from PHPStorm to VSCode but we arent able to so because everything a developer needs is stored in docker containers.

Answer 1

I came up with a solution on Linux for multiple laravel sail projects.
Create a file named 'php' on /usr/local/bin
sudo touch /usr/local/bin/php
Make it executable:
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/php
Edit the file (with sudo) and paste this code:
path=$(printf '%s\n' "${PWD##*/}")
command="docker exec ${path}_laravel.test_1 php "$#""
echo "Running php on docker ${path}_laravel.test_1"
$command
Now just run, example, 'php -v' inside the laravel sail project.

Answer 2

Or you can use plugin for that: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=henriiik.docker-linter
Example how to configure it correctly could be found in their repository https://github.com/henriiik/vscode-docker-linter/blob/master/playground-php/.vscode/settings.json
You will need to modify the existing settings to look like this example below...
{
"php.validate.enable": false,
"docker-linter.php.enable": true,
"docker-linter.php.container": "stack_php",
"docker-linter.php.machine": ""
}

Answer 3

If you are running Docker on Windows and WSL2 you should replace the underscores for dash like this:
path=$(printf '%s\n' "${PWD##*/}")
command="docker exec ${path}-laravel.test-1 php "$#""
echo "Running php on docker ${path}-laravel.test-1"
$command
It took me a while to find out, i hope this can help someone.

Answer 4

I had the exact same issue, and just found a solution, but in my case I'm working under the Windows Subsystem for Linux, not straight Windows, so I'm not sure if/how it would be adapted. You can read more about it here: set PHP path from host to docker container
For me, the part that seemed to resolve the problem was moving the "wrapper" to /usr/local/bin, and then setting that as my php.validate.executablePath for the Workspace (you could also set it at the Remote WSL level, but in my case, I might develop with multiple versions of PHP)
I hope that might help you!
Update:
I just saw someone in the comments was working in Windows!
They suggested putting
docker exec -i your_container_name php %*
into a .bat file; looking at what you've already done, the difference appears to be using exec instead of run

Answer 5

Microsoft now has an extension that allows you to open a vscode project inside a container context. This lets you use the PHP executable loaded inside a Docker container for intellisense and other features.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers
https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-remote-release#readme

Answer 6

I've put this line into settings.json and it worked for me.
"php.validate.executablePath": "docker run --rm php:8.2-alpine php",
Go ahead and replace php:8.2-alpine with required php image (not container) name.
You can add it to Workspace settings.json to use different php versions for each project.
ps: I'm using MacOS, but pretty sure it should work on Windows too.