Minimal PHP/Apache Docker setup

Why Docker?

The portability of the containers, can be deployed anywhere
Efficient system resource usage compare to VM

How to Dockerize your php application?

Assuming your OS already have a good and working Docker installation

Let us use single page PHP applications below, index.php inside a webfolder directory

index.php content;

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

[root@localhost php_docker]# tree .
.
└── webfolder
└── index.php

Create a Dockerfile

Dockerfile in a list of instruction/command call to assemble the image

[root@localhost php_docker]# tree .
.
├── Dockerfile
└── webfolder
└── index.php

Content of the Dockerfile;

FROM php:7.4-apache

COPY webfolder/ /var/www/html/

EXPOSE 80

Explanation for each line

FROM php:7.4-apache

• php:7.4-apache based image selection

COPY webfolder/ /var/www/html/

• copy webfolder content into container /var/www/html/
• Apache2 default web directory

EXPOSE 80

• expose port 80 to the host

Next lets build the docker image

[root@localhost php_docker]# docker build --rm -t myphpdocker .

docker build [OPTIONS] PATH | URL | -
--rm = Remove intermediate containers after a successful build
-t = Name and optionally a tag in the 'name:tag' format
myphpdocker = docker container name
. (single dot) = build path

Check the built image

[root@localhost php_docker]# docker image ls

REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
myphpdocker         latest              0c1fe5b1aa9e        47 minutes ago      414 MB

Next is to run the docker

docker run [OPTIONS] IMAGE[:TAG|@DIGEST] [COMMAND] [ARG...]
-t = Allocate a pseudo-TTY
-i = Keep STDIN open even if not attached
-it = For interactive processes (like a shell), you must use -i -t together
-p = Publish a container's port(s) to the host
-d = Run container in background and print container ID

Lets try the interactive mode first

[root@localhost php_docker]# docker run -p 80:80 -it myphpdocker

Apache log appear on the terminal.
Open your browser and head to "http:/<host ip>/"

Now try the detach mode

[root@localhost php_docker]# docker run -p 80:80 -d myphpdocker

Check the running container

[root@localhost php_docker]# docker ps

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                NAMES
4619304831d4        myphpdocker         "docker-php-entryp..."   6 seconds ago       Up 5 seconds        0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp   frosty_tesla