How to get it to run with tests in(/from) a subdirectory (in GitHub Codespaces)?

[rugk]

Coming from #333 and thanks for your help. I tried to reproduce it again. As said, just creating a codespace on https://github.com/PrivateBin/PrivateBin/ (and installing the extension, which should be suggested) is enough for reproducing.

STR

I have made PrivateBin/PrivateBin#1790 (with the adjustments below) for easier reproducing, though.

Then just click the "Run all tests" in the sidebar. Note I explicitly do not click "debug [tests]" or so, so I don't really know why it comes up with xdebug at all…

The issue

We have the tests (and phpunit.xml in a sub-directory) and as per our documentation you also need to run the tests from inside the ./tst directory, aka the CWD of phpunit needs to be there when started.

Here is a link to the full config file (it uses relative paths, so well…): https://github.com/PrivateBin/PrivateBin/blob/dd69cb89afb4dd4168a6d43abd6d05d78658df4a/tst/phpunit.xml

Tries

I thus created this config here:

{
    "phpunit.phpunit": "${workspaceFolder}/vendor/bin/phpunit",
    "phpunit.args": [
        "--configuration '${workspaceFolder}/tst/phpunit.xml'"
    ]
}

That also seems to work, but now I get a strange XDebug error (I did not even try to start a roper debugging session):

php /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/bin/phpunit --configuration=/workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/phpunit.xml --colors=never --teamcity

❌ Xdebug: [Step Debug] Could not connect to debugging client. Tried: localhost:9000 (through xdebug.client_host/xdebug.client_port).

Deprecated: Constant E_STRICT is deprecated since 8.4, the error level was removed in /workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/Bootstrap.php on line 13

Warning: require(../vendor/autoload.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/Bootstrap.php on line 29
PHPUnit 9.6.33 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

Error in bootstrap script: Error:
Failed opening required '../vendor/autoload.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php')
#0 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/FileLoader.php(66): include_once()
#1 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/FileLoader.php(49): PHPUnit\Util\FileLoader::load('/workspaces/Pri...')
#2 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Command.php(567): PHPUnit\Util\FileLoader::checkAndLoad('/workspaces/Pri...')
#3 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Command.php(347): PHPUnit\TextUI\Command->handleBootstrap('/workspaces/Pri...')
#4 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Command.php(114): PHPUnit\TextUI\Command->handleArguments(Array)
#5 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Command.php(99): PHPUnit\TextUI\Command->run(Array, true)
#6 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/phpunit(107): PHPUnit\TextUI\Command::main()
#7 /workspaces/PrivateBin/vendor/bin/phpunit(122): include('/workspaces/Pri...')
#8 {main}

version

Name: PHPUnit & Pest Test Explorer
ID: recca0120.vscode-phpunit
Beschreibung: Run PHPUnit and Pest tests in VS Code with the native Test Explorer. Supports Docker, SSH, Laravel Sail, ParaTest, and Xdebug step-debugging.
Version: 3.8.5
Herausgeber: Recca0120
Link zum Visual Studio Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=recca0120.vscode-phpunit

[recca0120]

The core issue here is that PHPUnit needs to be run from the tst/ directory because Bootstrap.php uses a relative path (../vendor/autoload.php).

The --configuration flag tells PHPUnit where to find phpunit.xml, but it does not change the working directory. So Bootstrap.php still resolves ../vendor/autoload.php relative to the workspace root, which fails.

Solution

Use the phpunit.args setting with --bootstrap using an absolute path, or set the working directory via a wrapper script.

Option 1: Absolute bootstrap path

{
    "phpunit.phpunit": "${workspaceFolder}/vendor/bin/phpunit",
    "phpunit.args": [
        "--configuration",
        "${workspaceFolder}/tst/phpunit.xml",
        "--bootstrap",
        "${workspaceFolder}/tst/Bootstrap.php"
    ]
}

This bypasses the relative path issue in Bootstrap.php by letting PHPUnit resolve the bootstrap file directly. However, if Bootstrap.php internally uses other relative paths, those will still fail.

Option 2: Shell wrapper (recommended for CWD-dependent projects)

Create a wrapper script tst/run-phpunit.sh:

#!/bin/bash
cd "$(dirname "$0")" && exec ../vendor/bin/phpunit "$@"

Then configure:

{
    "phpunit.phpunit": "${workspaceFolder}/tst/run-phpunit.sh",
    "phpunit.args": [
        "--configuration",
        "${workspaceFolder}/tst/phpunit.xml"
    ]
}

This ensures PHPUnit runs with tst/ as the working directory.

About the Xdebug error

The Xdebug warning (Could not connect to debugging client) is unrelated — it just means Xdebug is enabled in your PHP config but no debugger is listening. You can suppress it by adding to your workspace settings:

{
    "phpunit.args": ["-d", "xdebug.mode=off"]
}

[rugk]

Thanks for that (I guess, AI) answer. Anyway, it was actually helpful, as it can load the Bootstrap.php file, but yet again, the different PWD causes problems:

php /home/vscode/.composer/vendor/bin/phpunit --configuration=/workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/phpunit.xml --bootstrap=/workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/Bootstrap.php --colors=never --teamcity

Deprecated: Constant E_STRICT is deprecated since 8.4, the error level was removed in /workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/Bootstrap.php on line 13

Warning: require(../vendor/autoload.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /workspaces/PrivateBin/tst/Bootstrap.php on line 29
PHPUnit 13.0.5 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

Error in bootstrap script: Error:
Failed opening required '../vendor/autoload.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php')
#0 /home/vscode/.composer/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Configuration/BootstrapLoader.php(61): include_once()
#1 /home/vscode/.composer/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Configuration/BootstrapLoader.php(36): PHPUnit\TextUI\Configuration\BootstrapLoader->load('/workspaces/Pri...')
#2 /home/vscode/.composer/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/TextUI/Application.php(132): PHPUnit\TextUI\Configuration\BootstrapLoader->handle(Object(PHPUnit\TextUI\Configuration\Configuration))
#3 /home/vscode/.composer/vendor/phpunit/phpunit/phpunit(104): PHPUnit\TextUI\Application->run(Array)
#4 /home/vscode/.composer/vendor/bin/phpunit(122): include('/home/vscode/.c...')
#5 {main}

The issue is, our PHP file then needs to include/bootstrap the to-be-tested files/the "system under test" and this fails, because it then cannot find that:
https://github.com/PrivateBin/PrivateBin/blob/422f149c527d637cdbb83a41302e2d6d50d0ce3c/tst/Bootstrap.php#L29

As far as I see, the best option would be to create a "phpunit.pwd": "${workspaceFolder}/tst", setting, so the extension does a cd before/changes the PWD before launching the command?

[rugk]

Okay created #385 for that suggestion.