Dockerizing a PHP Application
Build a Docker image for PHP + Nginx and orchestrate with Docker Compose.
Why Docker for PHP?
Docker packages your application with its dependencies into a portable container image. The same image runs identically in development, CI, and production — eliminating "works on my machine" problems.
Basic PHP Dockerfile
A minimal Dockerfile for a PHP + Nginx application.
# Dockerfile
FROM php:8.3-fpm-alpine
# Install extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql opcache
# Install Composer
COPY --from=composer:2 /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer
WORKDIR /app
COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
COPY . .
RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /app/storage /app/bootstrap/cacheAll lessons in this course
- Nginx and PHP-FPM Configuration
- Environment Variables and .env Files
- Deploying with GitHub Actions
- Dockerizing a PHP Application