Austral Docker PHP 8.4

Base image Alpine 3.23: Docker Hub or GitHub

Versions

• PHP: 8.4.17
• PostgreSQL-client: 16.12
• MySQL-client: 11.4.9
• Supercronic: 0.2.49
• Xdebug: installed, only loaded when XDEBUG=1

Running as any user (non-root)

The image runs as root or as any UID/GID, for example with Docker Swarm:

services:
  php:
    image: australproject/php:8.4
    user: "3001:3001"

The configuration is rendered at start-up into /tmp/php (writable by any user) from templates stored in the image. When the container is not root, user/group are not set in the FPM pool and chown / su-exec are skipped. Mounted directories must already be writable by the chosen UID.

Quick test:

docker run --rm -u 3001:3001 -e SCRIPT_AUTO=0 australproject/php:8.4 php -i | grep -E "Loaded Configuration|post_max_size"

Environment variables

Application

Variable	Default	Description
APP_ENV	prod	prod or dev
APP_DEBUG	false	0/false or 1/true; enables display_errors and E_ALL
XDEBUG	0	1 loads Xdebug 3 (client port 9000)
SCRIPT_AUTO	1	1 runs script-auto/run.sh if it exists. Set 0 on cron and secondary services
CREATE_LOG_DIR	0	1/true creates docker-log/php in the website directory at start-up. Not created by default
CREATE_CACHE_DIR	0	1/true creates var/cache in the website directory at start-up. Not created by default

docker-log/xdebug is still created when XDEBUG=1.

PHP (php.ini)

Variable	Default
PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT	512M
PHP_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME	120
PHP_MAX_INPUT_TIME	60
PHP_MAX_INPUT_VARS	5000
PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE	512M
PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE	512M
PHP_SESSION_SAVE_PATH	/tmp
OPCACHE_ENABLED	1 (0 when APP_DEBUG=true)
OPCACHE_VALIDATE_TIMESTAMPS	1
OPCACHE_MEMORY	512 (MB)
OPCACHE_REVALIDATE_FREQ	0 (seconds)

OPCACHE_VALIDATE_TIMESTAMPS=0 is only safe for immutable deployments: files edited over SFTP would not be reloaded.

PHP-FPM (pool www)

Variable	Default
FPM_PM	dynamic
FPM_MAX_CHILDREN	20
FPM_START_SERVERS	4
FPM_MIN_SPARE_SERVERS	4
FPM_MAX_SPARE_SERVERS	16
FPM_MAX_REQUESTS	500
FPM_REQUEST_TERMINATE_TIMEOUT	300s
FPM_LOG_LEVEL	notice

Keep FPM_MAX_CHILDREN × PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT below the container memory limit.

Overriding the configuration

Mount a directory on /overrides (read-only is fine):

Path in /overrides	Effect
php.ini	Replaces the whole php.ini (copied as is, no variable substitution)
php-fpm.conf	Replaces the whole php-fpm.conf
www.conf	Replaces the whole pool configuration
conf.d/*.ini	Extra PHP settings, loaded after the base configuration
pool.d/*.conf	Extra FPM pools, added to the base configuration

For small changes, prefer drop-ins:

; /overrides/conf.d/custom.ini
date.timezone = Europe/Paris
session.save_handler = redis

services:
  php:
    volumes:
      - ./php-overrides:/overrides:ro

Logs

Everything goes to the container output (docker logs): FPM errors, PHP errors (/proc/self/fd/2) and workers' stdout/stderr (catch_workers_output).

Sessions with several replicas

The default /tmp is not shared between replicas. Use a shared store, for example Redis (extension included):

PHP_SESSION_SAVE_PATH=tcp://redis:6379

and add session.save_handler = redis in /overrides/conf.d/.

Script Auto

Add a script-auto/run.sh file in the project path. It runs at container start-up when SCRIPT_AUTO=1 (as www-data when the container is root, as the current user otherwise).

Cron with Supercronic

Supercronic is included and writes job output to stdout/stderr, so it appears in docker logs. Run it in a dedicated service:

services:
  cron:
    image: australproject/php:8.4
    command: supercronic /etc/crontab
    environment:
      - SCRIPT_AUTO=0
    healthcheck:
      disable: true

Healthcheck

The image checks that FPM listens on port 9900. Disable it on services that do not run FPM (cron).

Commit Messages

The commit message must follow the Conventional Commits specification. The following types are allowed:

• update: Update
• fix: Bug fix
• feat: New feature
• docs: Change in the documentation
• spec: Spec change
• test: Test-related change
• perf: Performance optimization

Examples:

update : Something

fix: Fix something

feat: Introduce X

docs: Add docs for X

spec: Z disambiguation

License and Copyright

See License

Credits

Created by Matthieu Beurel. Sponsored by Yipikai Studio.