example-php-apache

Docker - simple PHP server

Based heavily off of these tutorials:

• Learn Docker in 12 Minutes 🐳
• Docker Compose in 12 Minutes

Follow these steps to start the php server:

cd /path/to/example-php-apache
docker build -t example-php-apache-img .
docker run \
  -p 8000:80 \
  -v $(pwd)/src:/var/www/html \
  --name example-php-apache-container \
  example-php-apache-img

Open up the following url in your browser:

• http://localhost:8000

Notes about docker run:

• -p maps ports like so: <MACHINE_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>
• -v specifies the volume to enable realtime updates in local dev environment.
  • The volume must be specified at runtime in order for this to work. See documentation for more details.
  • The host volume mount src MUST be absolute, not relative
  • $(pwd) just outputs the absolute path of the present working directory
  • Volumes have ZERO effect once deployed (except for sharing filesystems across several containers)

Docker Compose

All of the above can steps can be simplified into a single cmd that utilizes docker compose:

cd /path/to/example-php-apache
docker-compose up

File changes during development

Normally, a docker image would need to be re-built in order for any changes to show up. Obviously this is not ideal for a local development environment.

The volume configuration specified above in the docker run -v command and in docker-compose.yml basically allow for the local machine and the docker container to share the same source files.

NOTE - if any changes added after the initial build, then docker build will need to be run again before deploying to a remote. Otherwise, the changes will not show up.