1 A Vanilla Prototype

To run the Apache HTTP Server with PHP in Docker on your, say, htdocs/ directory, on port 8082, you can run the following command:

docker run -d -p 8082:80 --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)/htdocs",target=/var/www/html php:apache

That’s it! If you try this, and it works for you, you’re done!

The command does the following:

• If the Docker image php:apache is not present in your machine’s local Docker registry, it will be downloaded from Docker hub.
• It creates a new container based on the image php:apache.
• It maps port 80 from the container to port 8082 on your host machine.
• It mounts the directory htdocs/ from your host machine to /var/www/html in the container.

If you’re lucky, you can now access http://localhost:8082/ and see your web pages hosted from an Apache HTTP Server with PHP in a Docker container.

1.1 Things that didn’t work for me

For me, this didn’t work, for the following reasons:

• I override a lot of configuration in .htaccess.
• I need a modified PHP configuration.
• I use Apache HTTP Server modules which are not enabled by default.

So I created my own Dockerfile to cope with the changes that I need.

2 The Dockerfile

The standard image does not serve all purposes. Things you might want to change are:

• Enable additional Apache HTTP Server modules.
• Allow overriding specific directives in .htaccess.
• Add a PHP configuration.

2.1 Explanation

• The FROM php:apache selects the latest version of PHP with the latest version of the Apache HTTP Server. I do not use this image in production, otherwise I would pin down the version.
• The SHELL line changes the shell command for the subsequent RUN commands to be /bin/bash -c instead of /bin/sh -c. I do this to get brace expansion.
• The RUN ln command enables the Apache HTTP Server modules. I could’ve used RUN a2enmod instead, but since I know what I’m doing, ln is simpler and faster for me than a2enmod. There’s a caveat: If the way how Debian handles Apache HTTP Server modules changes, my Dockerfile might fail. If I would use a2enmod, my Dockerfile would still work. Refer to [man:a2enmod] for more information about a2enmod.
• The RUN sed command replaces AllowOverride None with AllowOverride All for the directory /var/www/. I have a lot of configuration in my .htaccess file which needs this.
• The COPY command copies my php.ini file to the desired location in the docker image. My PHP configuration has a lot of modifications.

For more information what these Dockerfile commands mean and how they work, refer to [Dockerfile].

3 The docker commands

To use and run this image, you need a few docker commands.

docker build -t my/apache-php .

This command builds your Apache PHP Docker image from the Dockerfile and stores it in your local registry under the name my/apache-php.

docker run --name apache -d 8082:80 --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/htdocs,target=/var/www/html my/apache-php

This command runs your docker image my/apache-php in a docker container. The Docker container is named apache for further reference. Port 80 inside the container, which is where the Apache HTTP Server is running, is mapped to port 8082 on the host. So you can access this with http://localhost:8082/. The option --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/htdocs,target=/var/www/html creates a bind mount of the htdocs directory of the host to /var/www/html in the container. If your web pages are in a different directory, adjust the source path accordingly.

docker stop apache

Stops your docker container.

docker rm apache

Removes your docker container.

docker container logs apache

Prints the logs of the Apache HTTP Server inside the container.

docker exec -it apache bash

Logs into the Apache PHP container using a bash shell.

docker ps -f name=apache

Shows the status of the Apache PHP container.

4 The Makefile

The Makefile serves as a more convenient way to wrap the docker commands needed to deal with the container. The things you want to do:

• (Create and) start the container.
• Stop (and remove) the container.
• Print the logs of the container.
• Login to the container.

So, the Makefile offers the following commands:

make start

Builds and starts the container. Docker is incremental. In case the Dockerfile was not changed, the container image will actually not be rebuilt. The Apache HTTP Server will be bound to port 8082. If you want a different port, for example, port 9000, you can run it like this: make start PORT=9000.

make stop

Stops and removes the container. Because the container does not store any data, it can safely be removed.

make logs

Prints the logs of the container, in case you want to inspect the logs.

make login

Login to the container with a root bash, in case you want to inspect something inside the container.