Laravel on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows!

By Rich Peers

Before we were introduced to "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" - the Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows was still a viable Operating System for PHP development. Using combinations of Git Bash, Homestead, Vagrant, Docker and other tools to circumvent the fact it's not Unix like. Essential tools like Composer and NodeJS offer Windows native installs, which when used via Git Bash can work quite well; most of the time. When something does'nt work, be prepared to spend serious time finding a workaround.

You can choose to use a Virtual Machine like Vagrant, Homestead, or Docker. Mirror the server environment as close as possible, and avoid messing up your local machine. Use a VM and you can scrap it then spin another up in minutes. Thus making the host O.S. seemingly irrelevant. However, you might want to run CLI tools locally on the shared folder. Running npm run dev every time you "Just move that up one pixel" can really slow you down if ran on a V.M.

For the Linux Subsystem with the "Creative Update"; Apache, nginx, MySQL, PostgreSQL and more now work out the box. Pulling in dependencies and compiling assets is quicker than on a VM, but slower than native Windows. Its a matter of balance, and preference, which tools to use via the Linux Subsystem "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows", in native Windows, or via a Virtual Machine.

With Virtual machines for close to production environments, and Valet for quickly serving a new laravel app locally, I'm now using the Linux Subsystem for php, composer, npm and git commands from /mnt/c/code. I use a Windows branch of Valet parked on c:\code which i can share with a VM if fit for the project. MySQL I run natively, although it would work just as well inside the subsystem and accessed at localhost from either.

Configuring Windows Subsystem for Linux

I recommend the MSDN Installation Guide.

Guidance for configuring PHP, Composer, Git NodeJS and Yarn below. As you can see it's all standard stuff for Ubuntu. It all works!

PHP

sudo apt-get update | sudo apt-get upgrade -y

7.0 ships with Ubuntu 16.04:

sudo apt-get install php php-mysql php-mbstring php-xml php-curl php-zip

For other versions use ondrej/php:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
sudo apt-get update | sudo apt-get upgrade -y

7.1:

sudo apt-get install php7.0 php7.0-mysql php7.0-mbstring php7.0-xml php7.0-curl php7.0-zip

5.6:

sudo apt-get install php5.6 php5.6-mysql php5.6-mbstring php5.6-xml php5.6-curl php5.6-zip

Composer

DigitalOcean have good instructions to Install and Use Composer on Ubuntu 16.04

Git

sudo apt-get git

Configure Identity: First-Time Git Setup

NodeJS and npm

Official instruction to Install Node.js

Yarn

Installation - Debian/Ubuntu Linux

Laravel Mix & Browsersync

Consider the following in webpack.mix.js to allow browsersync to open chrome when you npm run watch

if (mix.inProduction()) {
    mix.disableNotifications()
        .version();
} else {
    mix.browserSync({
        proxy: 'your-domain.dev', // Valet
        // proxy: 'localhost:8000', // php artisan serve
        // proxy: 'your-domain.app', // Homestead
        browser: '/mnt/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe' // windows linux subsystem
    });
}