Docker Compose and WordPress

Use WordPress locally with Docker using Docker compose

A Dockerfile for extending a base image and using a custom Docker image with an automated build on Docker Hub
PHP 7.4
Custom domain for example myapp.local
Custom nginx config in ./nginx
Custom PHP php.ini config in ./config
Volumes for nginx, wordpress and mariadb
Bedrock - modern development tools, easier configuration, and an improved secured folder structure for WordPress
Composer
WP-CLI - WP-CLI is the command-line interface for WordPress.
MailHog - An email testing tool for developers. Configure your outgoing SMTP server and view your outgoing email in a web UI.
PhpMyAdmin - free and open source administration tool for MySQL and MariaDB
- PhpMyAdmin config in ./config
CLI script to create a SSL certificate

Instructions

Requirements

Docker
mkcert for creating the SSL cert.

Install mkcert:

brew install mkcert
brew install nss # if you use Firefox

Setup

Setup Environment variables

Easily set your own local domain, db settings and more. Start by creating .env files, like the examples below.

For Docker and the CLI script

Copy .env-example in the project root to .env and edit your preferences.

Example:

IP=127.0.0.1
APP_NAME=myapp
DOMAIN="myapp.local"
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_NAME=myapp
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=password
DB_TABLE_PREFIX=wp_

For WordPress

Edit ./src/.env-example to your needs. During the composer create-project command described below, an ./src/.env will be created.

1. Use HTTPS with a custom domain

Create a SSL cert:

cd cli
./create-cert.sh

Note: mkcert needs to be installed.

This script will create a locally-trusted development certificates. It requires no configuration.

Windows

Follow the instructions

Linux

Follow the instructions

2. Use a simple config

Edit nginx/default.conf.conf to use this simpler config.

server {
    listen 80;

    root /var/www/html/web;
    index index.php;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    client_max_body_size 100M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass wordpress:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

Edit the nginx service in docker-compose.yml to use port 80. 443 is not needed now.

  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: ${APP_NAME}-nginx
    ports:
      - '80:80'

Edit ./src/.env-example and set

WP_HOME='http://localhost'

Run using docker-compose up
Open http://localhost/

Install

docker-compose run composer create-project

Run

docker-compose up

Docker Compose will now start all the services for you:

Starting myapp-mysql    ... done
Starting myapp-composer ... done
Starting myapp-phpmyadmin ... done
Starting myapp-wordpress  ... done
Starting myapp-nginx      ... done
Starting myapp-mailhog    ... done

🚀 Open https://myapp.local in your browser

PhpMyAdmin

PhpMyAdmin comes installed as a service in docker-compose.

🚀 Open http://127.0.0.1:8082/ in your browser

MailHog

MailHog comes installed as a service in docker-compose.

🚀 Open http://0.0.0.0:8025/ in your browser

Tools

Update WordPress Core and Composer packages (plugins/themes)

docker-compose run composer update

Use WP-CLI

docker exec -it myapp-wordpress bash

wp search-replace https://olddomain.com https://newdomain.com --allow-root

Run a wp-cli command

You can use this command first after you've installed WordPress using Composer as the example above.

Update plugins and themes from wp-admin?

You can, but I recommend to use Composer for this only. But to enable this edit ./src/config/environments/development.php (for example to use it in Dev)

Config::define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', false);
Config::define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', false);

Useful Docker Commands

When making changes to the Dockerfile, use:

docker-compose up -d --force-recreate --build

docker exec -it myapp-wordpress bash

Stop

docker-compose stop

Down (stop and remove)

docker-compose down

Cleanup

docker-compose rm -v

Recreate

docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

Rebuild docker container when Dockerfile has changed

docker-compose up -d --force-recreate --build

Changelog

2021-01-02

Use NGINX_ENVSUBST_TEMPLATE_SUFFIX. Use a template and better substution of ENV variables in nginx config.

2020-10-04

Added mariadb-client (Solves #54)

2020-09-15

Updated Bedrock. Update WordPress to 5.5.1 and other composer updates.

2020-07-12

Added Mailhog. Thanks @mortensassi

2020-05-03

Added nginx gzip compression

2020-04-19

Added Windows support for creating SSH cert, trusting it and setting up the host file entry. Thanks to @styssi

2020-04-12

Remove port number from DB_HOST. Generated database connection error in macOS Catalina. Thanks to @nirvanadev
Add missing ENV variable from mariadb Thanks to @vonwa

2020-03-26

Added phpMyAdmin config.Thanks to @titoffanton

2020-02-06

Readme improvements. Explain /etc/hosts better

2020-01-30

Use Entrypoint command in Docker Compose to replace the domain name in the nginx config. Removing the need to manually edit the domain name in the nginx conf. Now using the .env value DOMAIN
Added APP_NAME in .env-example Thanks to @Dave3o3

2020-01-11

Added .env support for specifying your own app name, domain etc in Docker and cli scripts.
Added phpMyAdmin. Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/

2019-08-02

Added Linux support. Thanks to @faysal-ishtiaq.

tkvw/wordpress-nginx-docker-compose