Configure and build xdebug on macOS Catalina. The reason for these errors is that the /usr/include folder is missing because Apple removed it when they released Xcode 11. But, you can work around this problem. Here is how: First, you need to make sure that Xcode and the command line tools installed.

When you try to build xdebug on macOS Catalina you will get errors like these:

Configure and build xdebug on macOS Catalina

• Edit 2: It seems to be downloading very slowly; perhaps Apple's download servers are overloaded from people updating to the latest iOS release. I've been trying to install Xcode 12.5 from the App Store, although each time, it stops downloading at exactly 388 MB. This persists when cancelling and restarting the download, and even across a reboot.
• If running the flutter command fails and you get an xcrun error, try typing xcode-select -install to update the Command Line Tools and then restart the Terminal again.

The reason for these errors is that the /usr/include folder is missing because Apple removed it when they released Xcode 11.

Install Xcode On Catalina Mac

But, you can work around this problem. Here is how:

First, you need to make sure that Xcode and the command line tools installed. Open a terminal window and run the following command to display the SDK path:

This command should output something like this:

If not, install the command-line tools with executing:

and follow the instructions. After the installation is finished, start Xcode App to make sure the installation is done.

Now try to display the SDK-Path again:

The php tools needed to compile an extension try to use this missing include folder. We will create a modified version of phpize and php-config which will use the includes from the macOS SDK. First we will copy phpize and php-config and then we will modify these copies with a patch.

We create a new folder in your home directory under /Users/YOUR-USERNAME with the name 'php-private'..

Now copy phpize and php-config to php-private

Now determine which PHP version is installed on your system by executing

You should get something like this

I have prepared two patches to simplify the process. Download the two files and save them in your Downloads folder.

Download the phpize patch phpize-catalina.patch.zip and save it. The contents of the patch file for reference:

For PHP 7.3.9 Download the php-config patch php-config-7.3.9-catalina.patch.zip and save it.

For PHP 7.3.11 Download the php-config patch php-config-7.3.11-catalina.patch.zip and save it.

The contents of the patch file for reference:

Extract the compressed patch files.

PHP 7.3.9:

PHP 7.3.11:

Now we patching our copy of phpize and php-config

PHP 7.3.9:

PHP 7.3.11:

We are ready to compile xdebug

Create a working directory in your home folder. We will build xdebug here

Download xdebug from Xdebug.org and save in under Downloads.

Copy the archive to the working directory and extract it.

Install Xcode 12.4 On Catalina

Now, we run our patched phpize in the xdebug folder.

When everything went good, you get something like this:

If so, you can skip the next part and continue with configuring and installing Xdebug.

Errors like these means, you need to install some requirements.

If phpize prints lines like these, you need to install autoconf:

To install autoconf, execute the following commands:

Now run our patched phpize in the xdebug folder again.

Install Xcode On Catalina

Check the output, and if everything went good, continue.

Configure and build xdebug:

Now we will find the full path to our patched php-config. This can be done like this:

Can't Install Xcode On Catalina

The output will something like:

Install Xcode On Catalina Update

Replace '/Users/YOUR-USERNAME/php-private/php-config' with the output of the above command and configure xdebug by executing:

In the output of configure you will see that the SDK path is being used:

Now build the extension

Install Xcode 9 On Catalina

We don't executing 'make install' to install xdebug.so because the macOS System Integrity Protection (SIP) will not allow us to install xdebug to the /usr/lib/extensions folder. To workaround this, we install the extension under the /usr/local folder.

Install Xcode 10.3 On Catalina

Now edit your php.ini (usually under /etc/php.ini) to load the right xdebug. PHP searches for extensions in its default extension directory. Our xdebug resides outside of this directory, so we have to specify the full path:

To test it, execute:

The output should begin like this:

Restart your apache web server to activate your changes