NuSphere Forums

PhpED PHP IDE :: RE: Remote CLI SSH debug on Windows server does not from the IDE

dmitri — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 04:03:38 GMT

Author: dmitri
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 11:03 pm (GMT -5)

If I read this right, you don't want to use cygwin's sshd (openssh) but windows sshd (openssh) because it's your prod and I guess you have some other integrations that relies on cmd.
May be you can setup a different User account for debugger and configure windows sshd to lauch cygwin bash automatically?
there is %programdata%sshsshd_config, where you can set

Code:

Match User username
ForceCommand C:\Path\To\Cygwin\bash.exe --login

Does this solve the problem?
_________________
The PHP IDE team

PhpED PHP IDE :: RE: Remote CLI SSH debug on Windows server does not from the IDE

carlosh — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 22:23:45 GMT

Author: carlosh
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 5:23 pm (GMT -5)

I found another possible workaround; I am leaving the default shell to `cmd.exe`. But if I execute this command on the client:

Code:

ssh -p 22 -t user@host.domain.com "C:\cygwin64\bin\bash.exe -il"

I am landing on the bash shell. However, this cannot be use PHPEd because the Account UI for SSH Terminal Accounts, there is no option to add SSH "commands". If there were a choice, possible this could be a possibility.

PhpED PHP IDE :: RE: Remote CLI SSH debug on Windows server does not from the IDE

carlosh — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 18:59:28 GMT

Author: carlosh
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 1:59 pm (GMT -5)

Yes, after my last reply, I noticed that you mentioned about open the Firewall port for the OpenSSHd from Cygwin, so I realized that you referred to run the whole SSH server and shell using Cygwin.

As I proved before, by executing the commands manually, it's possible to run the CLI debugger using the CMD, but needs that PhpEd, knows that is not a bash shell and send the correct sequence of command. I said this should be considered as Window Server 2019 and 2025, the SSH server is built-in and deployed on production servers, especially for Core deployments.

I know that you mention that PhpEd and these features are mean for developing. However, when something goes wrong on production, the debugger is an amazing tool to diagnostic and figure out an already deployed application without the need to download the whole application (code, database, data files) locally and redeploy on a stagging server. An even, the worst-case scenario, sometimes the misbehavior is not reproducible on staging servers, only on production.

PhpED PHP IDE :: RE: Remote CLI SSH debug on Windows server does not from the IDE

dmitri — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:54:21 GMT

Author: dmitri
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 6:54 am (GMT -5)

I think you'd run sshd from cygwin if you're using cygwin. It runs cygwin's bash (or zsh if you will) without any problems or quirks and therefore wouldn't require to run twice and sftp would work too.
You also will find out that public keys for regular (non-Administrator) user authentication are working out of the cygwin box too. I couldn't find a way to set that with Win10's openssh component.

I agree that cmd and openssh components on Win10+ should be preferred in your case. They were not available at the time when the feature was designed and developed, but telnet was.
Now telnet is not available and we need to implement cmd based connector for windows.
_________________
The PHP IDE team

PhpED PHP IDE :: RE: Remote CLI SSH debug on Windows server does not from the IDE

carlosh — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:51:06 GMT

Author: carlosh
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 12:51 am (GMT -5)

Sorry the delay, I was pulled on other projects.

Finaly, I have been able to dedicate time to test on Cygwin. I can say it works but it's somehow a convoluted procedure and still I have to debug the script twice to make it work. These are the steps.

1. Download and install the basic Cygwin
2. Edit the Registry add these String keys:

Code:

HKLM:SOFTWARE\OpenSSH\DefaultShell = C:\cygwin64\cygwin.bat
HKLM:SOFTWARE\OpenSSH\DefaultShellCommandOption = /c

3. Test that I can remote SSH and get a bash shell
4. Test if can run "ls" command. If not, something is wrong loading the default profile (This was my first mistake by trying to load bash directly from "C:\\cygwin64\\bin\\bash.exe" and parameters "-i --login")
5. On PHPEd open the project that is remote. The tunnel should open without problem.
6. Change on "Run target" the "Php executable" to the cygwin format. In my case it is on the PATH so it should a simple "php", but I pointed it to the PHP that I have installed at "/cygdrive/C/4safecom/php/php"
7. The "Remote root directory" I have to leave it on Windows format, do not put it on Cygwin format. Because the PHP binary still is a windows version.
8. Open a CLI script and set a breakpoint.
9. Change Run mode to CLI and run on Debug mode. It will open a SSH tab, the first time it will show a lot of stuff of the ENV variable,
10. If it doesn't start debugging right away, press Cancel, do not close the SSH tab, run the debugger again.
11. Most of the times the second time start debugging right away.

I think the problem that needs to run twice is due that cygwin needs to run the batch file instead of running the bash on SSH. So, it has to run CMD and then it switches to bash. As a sample, this is the output I get on the SSH window:

Code:

$ cmd /c cd; echo "PHPED_CLI_EXEC_RESULT=$?"
C:\Users\dev_sup
PHPED_CLI_EXEC_RESULT=0

$ export DBGSESSID=4614329655400008@localhost:7870\;d=1,p=0c=1

$ /cygdrive/C/4safecom/php/php C:\\4safecom\\www\\training\\admin\\cron.php

$ echo "PHPED_CLI_EXEC_RESULT=$?"
PHPED_CLI_EXEC_RESULT=0

However, after doing this the SFTP doesn't work properly anymore. If I revert to "cmd.exe", it works. I have to install FileZilla Server to use FTPS instead.

At the end, it should be way easier if the CLI debugging is aware how to run in the CMD instead of cygwin and bash.