d11wtq/php repository overview

This is a docker container for running PHP 5 applications under Apache 2. It is designed to be very minimal, but in such a way that extending it is easy. Apache listens on port 8080 inside the container and runs in the foreground under a non-privileged user.

All the 'standard' PHP extensions are compiled, which basically means you can use MySQL, PgSQL, SQLite3, GD etc without doing anything special.

⁠Usage

Apache is run in the foreground with a minimal config that can be found at in the www/⁠ directory of the GitHub repository for this container.

⁠Testing

Without any special configuration, the index page will serve up the phpinfo() output. This should demonstrate that the container is working correctly.

docker run -p 8080:8080 d11wtq/php

Accessing http://localhost:8080/⁠ should show the PHP Info page and Apache logs should be written to stdout.

⁠Defaults

I have made no attempts to create an exhaustive configuration for PHP and Apache, rather focusing on setting a handful of minimal and sensible defaults and ensuring it is easy to override these defaults. In summary, the defaults are:

• Apache
  • mod_dir
  • mod_authz_core
  • mod_unixd
  • mod_mime
  • mod_log_config
  • mod_access_compat
  • mod_php5
  • Forking (not MPM)
  • Port 8080
  • Default charset 'UTF-8'
  • Loglevel 'info'
  • Logging to stdout
• PHP
  • error_reporting E_ALL
  • display_errors On
  • short_open_tag Off
  • default_charset 'UTF-8'
  • date.timezone 'UTC'
  • memory_limit 128M
  • post_max_size 32M
  • upload_max_filesize 8M

⁠Configuration

⁠Apache

The document root is set to /www/htdocs/ and you are expected to mount this directory as a volume, or add it to the container, using this image as the base image.

The main httpd.conf file resides in /www/httpd.conf, however it only loads some essential modules in order for Apache to function.

Extending the basic Apache 2 configuration can be done by adding *.conf files to /www/httpd.conf.d/, again either by mounting a volume, or by using this image as a base image.

⁠PHP

The main php.ini file resides in /www/php.ini, though it is kept to a minimum.

Extending the PHP configuration can be done by adding *.ini files to /www/php.ini.d/ using a volume, or by using this image as a base image. The default configuration is both minimal and strict.

If you know what you're doing, feel free to mount the entire /www/ directory as a volume and disregard the above, but make sure it contains at least an httpd.conf. Both Apache and PHP have been installed with --prefix=/usr/local.

⁠Web Access

Here's an example of serving a WordPress blog with mod_rewrite loaded, using shared volumes.

# Start MySQL somewhere
docker run -d  \
  --name mysql \
  your-mysql-container

# Start Wordpress, linking to MySQL
docker run -d                          \
  --name wordpress                     \
  -p 8080:8080                         \
  --link mysql:mysql                   \
  -v /path/to/wordpress:/www/htdocs    \
  -v /path/to/conf.d:/www/httpd.conf.d \
  d11wtq/php

The contents of /path/to/wordpress/ would be the directory including the index.php from WordPress. The contents of /path/to/conf.d/ would be a file named mod_rewrite.conf, with the contents:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Now accessing http://localhost:8080/⁠, you should see your WordPress blog, assuming it accesses MySQL on the hostname 'mysql'.

Here's the same example using a Dockerfile to create a new image, using this image as the base image:

FROM       d11wtq/php:latest
MAINTAINER Your Name

ADD /path/to/wordpress /www/htdocs
ADD /path/to/conf.d    /www/httpd.conf.d

Now build the new image:

docker build --rm -t your-wordpress .

And run it with:

# Start MySQL somewhere
docker run -d  \
  --name mysql \
  your-mysql-container

# Start Wordpress, linking to MySQL
docker run -d        \
  --name wordpress   \
  -p 8080:8080       \
  --link mysql:mysql \
  your-wordpress

You should be able to provide most needed configuration using this layout.

⁠Command Line Access

If you need to run PHP on the command line, just start /bin/bash in the container:

docker run -ti d11wtq/php /bin/bash

By default the same configuration file is used for the CLI as for Apache.