How to run a PHP script on docker? - php

Question

I have index.php:
<?php
echo "Hello World";
?>
Dockerfile from the website: https://docs.docker.com/samples/library/php/
FROM php:7.2-cli
COPY . /usr/src/myapp
WORKDIR /usr/src/myapp
CMD [ "php", "./index.php" ]
I build image and run container:
docker build -t my-php-app .
docker run -p 7000:80 --rm --name hello-world-test my-php-app
I see only text "Hello World" but my application doesn't work in http://localhost:7000/ why?

Answer 1

If you want to run some script "on the fly" with php-cli you can create the container and remove it immediately after the script execution.
Just go to the directory with your code and run:
Unix
docker container run --rm -v $(pwd):/app/ php:7.4-cli php /app/script.php
Windows - cmd
docker container run --rm -v %cd%:/app/ php:7.4-cli php /app/script.php
Windows - power shell
docker container run --rm -v ${PWD}:/app/ php:7.4-cli php /app/script.php
--rm will remove the container after execution
-v $(pwd):/app/ will mount current directory
php:7.4-cli is the image
and php /app/script.php is the command which will be executed after the container is created

Answer 2

You can keep the same base image as you have php:7.2-cli:
FROM php:7.2-cli
COPY . /usr/src/myapp
WORKDIR /usr/src/myapp
CMD [ "php", "./index.php" ]
...build the image:
docker build -t my-php-app .
...run it:
docker run --rm --name hello-world-test my-php-app
You will obtain:
Hello World
Everything you did was correct except the port mapping (-p 7000:80) which is not necessary because you aren't running a web server.
== EDIT
If you want to run it as a web server, use the following Dockerfile:
FROM php:7.2-apache
COPY . /var/www/html/
...build it:
docker build -t my-php-app .
...and run it:
docker run -p 8080:80 -d my-php-app
You will then have your PHP script running on 8080.

Answer 3

 1. Create simple php script:
echo '<?php echo "Working";' > my.php
 2. Run docker:
docker run -p 8080:8080 --rm -v $(pwd):$(pwd) php:7.4-cli php -S 0.0.0.0:8080 $(pwd)/my.php
 3. Open in browser:
http://localhost:8080/

Answer 4

Many answers suggest using Apache for this, but that is not required. You need to have your application in the container run continuously on a specific port. You can keep the php:7.2-cli image, but your CMD should be different:
CMD [ "php", "-S 0.0.0.0:80", "./index.php" ]
This will run the built-in PHP webserver and after that you can expose it with the docker run command you already had

Answer 5

Here is a quick and simple example with Docker on Windows 11, assuming you have a similar directory structure as the example below:
C:\Users\YourName\Workspace\MyProject\program.php
And program.php has the following content:
<?php echo "It works!"; ?>
Then, in the Command Prompt, navigate to the project directory:
cd C:\Users\YourName\Workspace\MyProject
Run with CLI
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -v %CD%:/cli php:7.4-cli php -S 0.0.0.0:8080 /cli/program.php
View: http://localhost:8080
Run with SERVER
docker run --rm -d -p 8081:80 -v %CD%:/server --mount type=bind,source="%CD%",target=/var/www/html php:apache
View: http://localhost:8081/program.php
Then feel free to modify program.php and refresh the page.
Environment
Docker version 20.10.16, build aa7e414
Windows 11 Home, Version 22H2, OS build 22622.436