README

A utility for rapidly deploying Docker for PHP apps.

Watch the zero-dependency installation video: https://youtu.be/d8o9p2DimME
Installing on a legacy PHP 5.6 app in 2 minutes: https://youtu.be/xZxaJcsbrWU

This project has been tested against over 350,000 open-sourced Packagist packages (via the Bettergist Archiver project) and is compatible with 99.999% of them.

Includes:

• PHP 5.6, 7.0-7.4 + 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, and 8.4.
• Nginx
• Redis v7.2
• PostgreSQL v16
• MariaDB v10.11

Current PHP versions:

• PHP 5.6.40-81+ubuntu24.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli)
• PHP 7.0.33-79+ubuntu24.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Dec 24 2024 06:43:22) ( NTS )
• PHP 7.1.33-67+ubuntu24.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Dec 24 2024 06:50:54) ( NTS )
• PHP 7.2.34-54+ubuntu24.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Dec 24 2024 06:58:15) ( NTS )
• PHP 7.3.33-24+ubuntu24.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Dec 24 2024 07:05:25) ( NTS )
• PHP 7.4.33 (cli) (built: Jul 3 2025 16:41:49) ( NTS )
• PHP 8.0.30 (cli) (built: Jul 3 2025 16:39:43) ( NTS )
• PHP 8.1.33 (cli) (built: Jul 3 2025 16:16:18) (NTS)
• PHP 8.2.29 (cli) (built: Jul 3 2025 13:08:18) (NTS)
• PHP 8.3.25 (cli) (built: Aug 29 2025 12:01:53) (NTS)
• PHP 8.4.11 (cli) (built: Aug 29 2025 06:48:12) (NTS)

The phpexperts/php:${PHP_VERSION}-full images contain every bundled PHP extension, and Redis.

• imap
• ldap
• pspell
• redis
• snmp
• xmlrpc
• Oracle ext-oci

The phpexperts/php:VERSION-full images contain everything in the full image plus drivers for Oracle (ext-oci8),

If you need an extension that is not available in the full build, please create an Issue at GitHub.

Installation

• Watch the Installation HOWTO video.

• Here's another Zero Install demo including PHP 8.4 and the php-ci system for testing every version of PHP.

Via Bash (Zero PHP dependencies)

bash <(curl -s 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PHPExpertsInc/dockerize/v12.x/dockerize.sh')

Then edit credentials in .env.

docker compose up -d

Via Composer

# Ensure that vendor/bin is in your PATH and before /usr/bin.
composer require --dev phpexperts/dockerize
vendor/bin/php dockerize
# Edit credentials in .env.
docker compose up -d

Don't forget to edit your docker compose.yml!

Configure your PATH

In order to dockerize your existing PHP project, do the following:

Ensure that your profile PATH includes ./vendor/bin and that it takes priority over any other directory that may include a php executable:

PATH=./vendor/bin:$PATH

Thank you, JetBrains

JetBrains generously grants this project a free Open-Source License to PhpStorm and all other JetBrains products as part of its Open Source License initiative.

Advantages over other dockerized PHP projects

1. Super fast, completely automated installation. (Great for testing multiple versions on CIs)
2. The BIG difference between www.phpdocker.io and Dockerize PHP is that Dockerize PHP provides all of the client utilities, where phpdocker.io provides NONE of them.

Out of the box, you have per-project binaries:

• php
• composer
• php-ci.sh
• mysql
• mysqldump
• psql
• pg_dump
• createdb
• dropdb
• redis
• redis-cli

PHP CI via Docker

With the php-ci.sh shell script, you can easily test your app or library against every major version of PHP (currently 7.4-8.3):

In the project root directory, where your phpunit.xml is, or where you'd normally run phpunit:

vendor/bin/php-ci.sh

It will then automagically update composer and run the appropriate version of PHPUnit for all of the major PHP versions supported by your project via the power of Docker.

Latest Changes

v14.1.0

• [2025-09-23 05:07:25 CDT] Changed the default nginx listening port to 8000.
• [2025-09-21 22:47:18 CDT] [major] Added a distroless nginx web image.
• [2025-09-21 22:35:18 CDT] Embedded the default nginx virtualhost directly into the image.
• [2025-09-21 22:11:07 CDT] Added base POSIX utilities to the distroless image.
• [2025-09-21 22:04:18 CDT] [major] Made distroless the main form factor for containers.

v14.0.0: Distroless Images

• [2025-08-16 19:07:33 CDT] Upgraded to the latest PHP.
• [2025-08-17 19:11:13 CDT] [major] Converted all of the PHP base images to distroless, saving 500 MB per image.

v13.0.3

• [2025-07-03 02:54:38 CDT] Fixed the ext-builder.

v13.0.2

• [2025-05-01 19:09:42 CDT] Version 13.0.2: Fixed the .gitattributes.

v13.0.1

• [2025-04-21 00:04:11 CDT] [php-ci] Fixed a bug.

v13.0.0

• [2025-04-17 06:21:56 CDT] Downverted the composer version constraints system to PHP 7.0.0 compatibility, with polyfills.
• [2025-04-17 05:56:47 CDT] [m] Version bumped the PHP versions.
• [2025-04-17 05:08:34 CDT] Completely reimplemented the PHP version parser.
• [2025-03-26 11:15:21 CDT] [m] Renamed test/ to tests/.
• [2025-03-26 10:45:57 CDT] Removed unnecessary distributables from composer install.
• [2025-03-26 10:35:51 CDT] Moved the web root to public/.
• [2025-03-26 09:51:14 CDT] Added ext-uuid to the extension builder system.
• [2025-03-26 09:40:29 CDT] Completely reimplemented the PHP extension builder to use only 1 image for all PHP versions.
• [2025-03-26 08:21:47 CDT] [bin/php] Optimized further when running natively and inside docker.
• [2025-03-25 13:21:46 CDT] Added the PHP Extension Builder system.
• [2025-03-25 13:10:50 CDT] [linux] Added the en_US.UTF-8 locale so more apps will work.
• [2025-03-25 13:08:48 CDT] Added steps to download ext-uuid source code.
• [2025-03-25 13:04:45 CDT] Ignore all .build-assets/ directories.
• [2025-03-24 13:34:41 CDT] [fixed] Ensured proper command execution in the entrypoint.
• [2025-03-24 13:33:11 CDT] [bin/php] Sets the working directory of the CLI to the current project directory.
• [2025-03-24 13:32:15 CDT] [bin/php] Default to host network if no project network exists
• [2025-03-24 13:31:12 CDT] [bin/php] Propagate the exit code from native php execution.

v12.2.1

• [2025-03-24 13:20:03 CDT] [bin/php] Complete fixed native PHP dispatching.

v12.2.0

• [2025-03-23 00:33:11 CDT] Fixed a bug where the native PHP binary couldn't find files.

v12.1.2

• [2024-12-21 13:32:23 CDT] Improved PHP 8.4 support.
• [2025-03-17 16:31:30 CDT] Built PHP 8.1.32, 8.2.28, 8.3.19, 8.4.5. HEAD -> v12.x

v12.1.1

• [2025-03-13 17:25:06 CDT] [php-ci] Refactored a lot.

v12.1.0

• [2025-03-12 18:32:13 CDT] Upgraded PHP 8.3.17 and 8.4.4.
• [2025-03-12 17:50:58 CDT] Renabled build support for PHP 5.6-7.3.
• [2025-03-12 17:45:01 CDT] [php-ci] Added support for PHPUnit v12.
• [2025-03-12 17:37:04 CDT] [php-ci] Added PHPUnit support for PHP 7.0 and 7.1.

v12.0.2

• [2025-01-07 08:11:57 CST] Fixed a bug where native PHP detection via .env didn't work.
• [2024-12-13 02:18:41 CST] Added another YouTube demo.

v12.0.1

• [2024-12-13 01:51:43 CST] Added PHP 8.4 support to php-ci.sh HEAD -> v12.x, origin/v12.x

v12.0.0

• [2024-12-12 16:19:40 CST] Added support for PHP 8.4.
• [2024-12-12 23:55:18 CST] Majorly overhauled the dockerize installer.

v11.1.0

• [2024-09-26 07:37:40 CDT] Add composer to the PHP 8.4 image. HEAD -> v11.0
• [2024-09-26 07:36:44 CDT] Fixed the PHP 8.4 entrypoint to use the standard entrypoint.
• [2024-09-13 03:48:00 CDT] Added support for PHP 8.4 beta5.
• [2024-09-12 05:30:37 CDT] [m] Updated the README.
• [2024-09-12 01:58:49 CDT] [m] Use the new ENV format in the Dockerfiles.
• [2024-09-12 01:44:09 CDT] Fixes for PHP 8.4 beta4 builds.
• [2024-09-09 12:55:33 CDT] [m] Prioritized the installation instructions in the README.md.

v11.0.0

• [2024-09-07 18:55:07 CDT] [major] Upgraded to Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat.
• [2024-09-07 18:55:45 CDT] Fixed a major reversion in web-debug by readding php-fpm.
• [2024-09-07 17:20:24 CDT] Added initial steps for creating a distroless PHP image. origin/v11.0
• [2024-09-07 19:00:42 CDT] Use a docker volume to store apt metadata.
• [2024-08-05 03:46:54 CDT] Added support for PHP 8.4 Alpha 4.
• [2024-08-05 04:33:33 CDT] Added a bash installation script to the composer package.

Manage with docker compose

To control the containers, use docker compose.

# Downloads the images, creates and launches the containers.
docker compose up -d
# View the logs
docker compose logs -ft
# Stop the containers
docker compose stop

That's it! You now have the latest LEPP (Linux, Nginx, PostgreSQL, PHP) stack or the latest LEMP (Linux, Nginx, MariaDB, PHP) stack.

User ID control

It is possible to control what UID the initial process (usually PHP) and/or PHP-FPM processes run as. The bin/php file already does this for the initial process.

This is important if you are mounting a volumes into the container, as the the UID of the initial process or PHP-FPM will likely need to match the volume to be able to read and/or write to it.

PHP-FPM process UID

To set the UID for the PHP-FPM process, you should set the PHP_FPM_USER_ID environmental variable on the container. e.g:

docker run -e PHP_FPM_USER_ID=1000 phpexperts/php:7 php-fpm5.6

Distribution

Docker Hub:

• https://hub.docker.com/r/phpexperts/php/
• https://hub.docker.com/r/phpexperts/web/

About PHP Experts, Inc.

PHP Experts, Inc., is my consultation company. It's a small company of a half dozen highly skilled Full Stack PHP devs, including myself, whom I place at 1099 positions at other corporations. We fill both long-term positions and, for crazy devs like me, short-term. If you ever wanted to work on a different project/company every few months or even weeks, anywhere in the continental U.S., Europe, or South East Asia, it's fantastic.

Since 2015, I have set up branches in Las Vegas, Houston, the UK, Dubai, Costa Rica, Colombia, India, and the Philippines. If someone has a work auth in any of those places, we can place you almost anywhere you want. I travel 50% of the time out of choice. All over the world.