PHP development environment with WSL2

To install WSL2 in Windows run:

wsl --install

Enter a username and password.

Update and upgrade Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Install Apache

sudo apt install apache2

Add PHP repository:

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update

Create this installation sh script: phpsetup.sh

touch phpsetup.sh
vim phpsetup.sh

Press INSERT to enter in edit mode.

Copy paste this content:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

apt update
apt install vim unzip -y
apt install libapache2-mod-php8.3 php8.3 php8.3-cgi -y
apt install mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev -y
apt install php8.3-mysql php8.3-sqlite3 -y
apt install php8.3-mbstring php8.3-curl php8.3-intl php8.3-gd php8.3-zip php8.3-bz2 -y
apt install php8.3-dom php8.3-xml php8.3-soap -y
apt install php8.3-xdebug

a2enmod php8.3
a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod actions

sed -i '170,174 s/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/g' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

service apache2 restart

cd ~
php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
composer self-update

Press ESC, then enter: :qw and ENTER to save the file.

Set execute permission:

sudo chmod +x phpsetup.sh

Run the setup script:

sudo ./phpsetup.sh

For development only: give full write access:

sudo chmod -R a+rwx /var/www/html/

Install net-tools:

apt install net-tools

Run hostname -I to find the local IP address of the VM, e.g. 172.26.131.159

hostname -I

Go back to your host machine and try to open the url using this IP-address, e.g. http://172.26.131.159

You should see the Apache demo website.

To access the files from Windows, create a network share.

Install Samba:

sudo apt install samba

Add a network share:

net usershare add html /var/www/html apache Everyone:F guest_ok=y

On your host machine use the UNC path to open the network share: \\172.26.131.159

\\172.26.131.159

You should see the html folder.

Optional, mount the network share a drive Z: on your host machine:

net use Z: \\172.26.131.159

Delete the file index.html in the www directory.

Create a new file index.php in the www directory.

Copy paste this PHP code:

<?php

phpinfo();

Navigate to http://172.26.131.159 in your browser.

You should see a PHP information page.

odan/php-wsl2-windows.md

PHP development environment with WSL2