PHP 7.4 & Apache Dockerfile Example

A base PHP 7.4 Apache 2 image¹ for demonstrating legacy projects available at EWC Docker Hub.

An old version of PHP that some codebase sites still require to emulate a production environment to run in.

Other Packages Included:

• Node v14.x
• Composer v1.10.1
• libxml2-dev
• libzip-dev
• libyaml-dev
• zip
• unzip
• git
• nodejs
• default-mysql-client
• vim
• npm i npm@$NPM_VERSION² -g
• yaml

PHP Extensions:

• gettext
• mysqli
• pdo_mysql
• zip
• yaml

Build Image

Build the Docker Image without using cached versions of previous image build stages.

sudo docker build \
    -f php-7-4-apache.Dockerfile \
    --target php-7-4-build \
    --build-arg APP_ENV=local \
    --build-arg NPM_VERSION=7.24.2 \
    --no-cache \
    -t php-7-4-web-server:latest \
    .

N.B.

• Using -f php-7-4-apache.Dockerfile

  To specify the filename to build otherwise it is expected to be named Dockerfile.

• Using --target php-7-4-build

  To select the build target stage³ from the Dockerfile.

• Using --build-arg ARG=value

  To set build argument values to use.

Create A Container

This creates a named container and attaches it to the host network and may cause port conflict if the host machine is already listening on any exposed ports from the Docker Image being used.

sudo docker run \
    -d \
    --network host \
    -v "$(pwd)"/public_html:/var/www/html \
    --name php-7-4-web-server \
    php-7-4-web-server

OR

This creates a named container and attaches it to the bridge network and allows for port forward mapping from the host to the Container.

sudo docker run \
    -d \
    --network bridge \
    -p 8080:80/tcp \
    -v "$(pwd)"/public_html:/var/www/html \
    --name php-7-4-web-server \
    php-7-4-web-server

N.B.

• Using -v "$(pwd)"/public_html:/var/www/html

  To Volume Mount the folder public_html from the current folder to /var/www/html on the running container. It is where Apache serves the content from & allows for realtime change updates.

• Using -p 8080:80/tcp

  To map port 8080 on the Host machine to port 80 on the Container using the bridge network.

• Using --name php-7-4-web-server

  To name the Container being created.

Start Container

sudo docker start php-7-4-web-server

Stop Container

sudo docker stop php-7-4-web-server

Docker Compose

A docker-compose configuration file is included to simplify the build & deployment of the image.

Build - No Cache

This is only necessary when completely rebuilding the image to make sure all parts are rebuilt⁴.

sudo docker-compose build --no-cache php-7-4-web-server

Build & Up

This will try to use a local version or rebuild the image with current context.

sudo docker-compose up --build -d

Connect To Container

sudo docker exec -it php-7-4-web-server /bin/bash

Disclaimer

This Apache2 + PHP 7.4 build environment should NOT be used anywhere near a production environment. This build is for showcasing legacy systems that simple would not run in modern environments & as such it is littered with security holes and exploitation's.

Footnotes

1. Use docker pull ewc2020/web:php-7.4-apache to get a copy of the image. ↩

2. Uses a .env build-arg called NPM_VERSION to specify the npm version. ↩

3. Used mostly in Multi Stage image builds. ↩

4. The php-7-4-web-server container name to build the image for. ↩