Microsoft VS Code: When I try to launch my program error "spawn php ENOENT" shows up

Question

I am trying to run PHP code on Microsoft VS Code. When I click launch the only thing that happens is an error in the debug console saying:

spawn php ENOENT

To fix this, I have put the dll file for XDebug into the ext folder. I copied php.ini-development into a new file called php.ini and in that file I added this to the end of the file.

zend_extension="[file path]"
xdebug.remote_enable = 1
xdebug.remote_autostart = 1

This changed nothing.

Then, I added an inbound rule for my firewall to allow inbound connections on port 9000. Still, nothing changed. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

What fixed it for me, was adding this line to user settings:

"phpserver.phpPath": "c:\\Ampps\\php-7.1\\php.exe"

Your path may vary. (-> error occurs, because your php is not found)

phpserver: This is because I use the PHP Server extension. If you use a different extension, you need a different parameter.

Answer 2

I am using the PHP_DEBUG extension and with a portable laragon environment. I had to make this change to my workspace settings / user settings

        {
            "name": "Launch currently open script",
            "type": "php",
            "request": "launch",
            "runtimeExecutable":"D:\\Share\\Dev\\Laragon\\bin\\php\\php-7.3.10-Win32-VC15-x64\\php.exe",
            "program": "${file}",
            "cwd": "${fileDirname}",
            "port": 9000
        }

Basically I had to add the runtimeExecutable line as defined by the PHP_debug extension.

I used this guide to get working with vscode + xdebug + laragon

However I still have an issue, when running individual scripts, that the environment and extensions aren't properly loaded for the CLI