Stack services

Similar to VIP Platform environments, the VIP Local Development Environment has container-based services. Some service containers may expose ports on the local machine.

• A list of a local environment’s running services and their accessible URLs can be retrieved with the VIP-CLI command: vip dev-env info --extended --slug=<slug>.
• Logs for a stack service on a running local environment can be retrieved with the VIP-CLI command: vip dev-env logs --service=<service> --slug=<slug>.

Database

A newly created VIP Local Development Environment is provisioned with a SQL database that has only the basic tables created during the standard installation of WordPress. VIP-CLI commands can be used to sync or import database content to a VIP Local Development Environment.

Changes made to the local database will persist if the local environment or the host machine is restarted, but will disappear if the environment is destroyed with the VIP-CLI command vip dev-env destroy.

Object cache

The same Memcached object cache used in production runs in the VIP Local Development Environment. Some database queries are automatically cached and will not appear in Query Monitor.

The local environment’s object cache can be flushed by running the WP-CLI command wp cache flush. The local object cache for specific network sites on a WordPress multisite can be flushed by passing the site’s URL with the --url argument. exec -- must be utilized for the command to run against the local environment and not the host machine.

vip dev-env exec --slug=example-site -- wp cache flush

PHP

Local environments can be created with versions of PHP that are currently eligible for security fixes (8.0, 8.1, 8.2). Users are encouraged to use the VIP Local Development environment as one of several tools for preparing application code for a PHP version upgrade.

Error logs

PHP error logs for a local environment can be accessed in the terminal with the vip dev-env logs command. In this example command, logs for PHP are specified with --service=php, and they are configured to continually output by also passing the --follow argument:

vip dev-env logs --service=php --follow --slug=example-site

PHP error logs for a local environment can also be referenced in a browser with Query Monitor.

WordPress

WordPress core files are accessible for each local environment in a wordpress directory. For example, for a local environment named example-site, this directory can be found in:
~/.local/share/vip/dev-environment/example-site/wordpress/

Modifications made to WordPress core files, mapped mu-plugins files, or custom code that was git cloned to the local machine will take immediate effect. The modifications will only affect the local environment associated with the wordpress directory, and will persist if the environment is stopped and restarted using the vip dev-env stop and vip dev-env start commands.

To revert changes made to the WordPress core code, run vip dev-env destroy --soft. This command will also remove all volumes including the database state.

Optional services

By default, optional services are disabled. They can be enabled with the vip dev-env create or the vip dev-env update commands by either passing their option into the command or by enabling them within the command’s setup wizard flow.

Elasticsearch

(Option: -e, --elasticsearch) The Elasticsearch service must be enabled in order to use Enterprise Search on a VIP Local Development Environment.

phpMyAdmin

(Option: -p, --phpmyadmin) To return the exposed port for the SQL database—and a web URL for phpMyAdmin to access the database—run vip dev-env info against a running environment.

Xdebug

(Option: -x, --xdebug) Xdebug can be enabled in the local environment with the setup wizard flow or by passing --xdebug=y with the vip dev-env create or vip dev-env update commands.

To work with Xdebug in Visual Studio Code (VS Code), pass the --vscode option when starting the environment with vip dev-env start. A *.code-workspace file will be generated, and a path to the file will be output in the terminal. Open the file with VS Code. The file contains path mappings for VS Code and Xdebug to interact with the local application code.

If necessary, --xdebug_config can be used to override the default configuration settings for setting up Xdebug with a code editor application.

Mailpit

(Option: -A, --mailpit) Mailpit is an email testing tool for developers. A local application can be configured to use Mailpit for SMTP delivery, to view messages in the web UI, and to optionally release messages to real SMTP servers for delivery.

Photon

(Option: -H, --photon) Enable the built-in service used by the VIP File System that performs core image processing and transformation for local development.