Running PHPUnit within a Docker container with PhpStorm

Question

I want to configure my PhpStorm IDE to run PHPUnit tests within my Docker container.

It seems like I'm restricted to either using a local PHP executable, or one through SSH, as the interpreter for the tests.

I could install an SSH service on my PHP container, but it seems like a bit of a hacky solution, and articles online discourage installing an SSH service on containers.

To try and get a local interpreter working, I tried creating a bash script that would proxy calls to PHP within the container, like this:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Run PHP through Docker
docker exec -t mycontainer_php_1 php "$@"

This works perfectly when I run it myself, but when I point PhpStorm to it as a local PHP interpreter, it doesn't recognize it as a valid PHP executable.

So what's a good way to get this working?

Answer 1

With PhpStorm now having better integration with Docker engine (including Docker for Mac), you can now just do the following (or read this article):

Command line:

1. Pull the phpunit Docker image: docker pull phpunit/phpunit
2. (Mac and maybe Windows) Bridge the Docker socket to the API_URL: socat -d TCP-LISTEN:2376,range=127.0.0.1/32,reuseaddr,fork UNIX:/var/run/docker.sock

Then Phpstorm:

1. Configure connection to Docker engine:
   • Go to Settings -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Docker
   • Create a new Docker configuration with API URL set to:
     • Linux: unix:///var/run/docker.sock
     • Windows and Mac: http://127.0.0.1:2376 or tcp://localhost:2376
2. Configure the remote interpreter:
   • Go to Settings -> Languages & Frameworks -> PHP
   • Create a new PHP CLI interpreter by:
     • Clicking on ... then + and 'Remote...'
     • Select Docker with:
       • ServerImage:
       • Image name: phpunit/phpunit:latest
       • PHP executable: php
3. Configure Phpunit:
   • Go to Settings -> Languages & Frameworks -> PHP -> PHPUnit
   • Create new Phpunit configuration (+ then 'By Remote interpreter...' and select
   • Set Use Composer Autoloader
   • Path to script: /opt/project/vendor/autoload.php
   • Default configuration file: /opt/project/phpunit.xml.dist
4. Try to run your tests!