Summary

Setting up a Roundcube development environment currently requires manually configuring PHP with the correct extensions, a database server (MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/SQLite), an IMAP server for testing, and various JavaScript build tools. This can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially for new contributors.

Proposal

Add a VS Code DevContainer configuration that provides a complete, reproducible development environment with a single click. The DevContainer would include:

Services

• PHP 8.4 with all required extensions (gd, intl, ldap, pdo_mysql, pdo_pgsql, pdo_sqlite, zip, opcache) and optional extensions (exif, imagick, enchant, xdebug)
• MariaDB 11 for database testing
• Dovecot IMAP server with a test user (testuser/testpass)
• Mailhog for capturing outgoing emails during testing

Automation

• Automatic database initialization on first start
• Composer and npm dependency installation
• JavaScript library downloads (jQuery, TinyMCE, CodeMirror)
• CSS compilation from LESS sources
• Development configuration file generation

VS Code Integration

• Pre-configured tasks for common operations:
  • Start development server
  • Run PHPUnit tests
  • PHP CS Fixer (check/fix)
  • PHPStan analysis
  • ESLint
  • Database management (init/reset/status)
• Recommended extensions (Intelephense, PHP Debug, ESLint, etc.)

Benefits

1. Lower barrier to entry - New contributors can start developing immediately without environment setup
2. Consistency - All developers work in identical environments, reducing "works on my machine" issues
3. Cross-platform - Works on Windows (WSL 2), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), and Linux
4. Isolation - Development environment doesn't affect host system
5. Documentation - The DevContainer configuration serves as executable documentation of requirements

Additional Changes

This enhancement also includes some minor fixes discovered during development:

• Exclude actual shell scripts from php-cs-fixer (the *.sh pattern was intended for PHP CLI scripts in bin/ that use .sh extension, not bash scripts)
• Add tests/.phpunit.result.cache to .gitignore