🐳 Docker PHP-FPM + Nginx

A complete and optimized Docker image for running WordPress and Pure PHP projects, with support for PHP 5.6 to 8.4, IonCube Loader, and all required extensions.

📋 Table of Contents

Features
Requirements
Project Structure
Getting Started
Environment Variables
PHP Extensions
IonCube Loader
Services
Volumes & Data
Useful Commands
Important Notes
Architecture

✨ Features

PHP 5.6 to 8.4 — select version via .env
Nginx + PHP-FPM — the most optimal combination for WordPress
IonCube Loader — full support for all PHP versions
MariaDB LTS — stable and fast database
Redis — cache and session management
Memcached — fast in-memory cache
phpMyAdmin — browser-based database management
Supervisor — automatic service management
All settings from .env — no need to modify config files directly
Traefik-ready — prepared for reverse proxy integration
Debian Bookworm — most stable base image

📦 Requirements

Docker version 20+
Docker Compose version 2+

Note for Mac users (Apple Silicon): Since IonCube is only available for x86-64 architecture, the image must be built with platform: linux/amd64. This setting is already configured in docker-compose.yml.

📁 Project Structure

project/
├── Dockerfile                      ← Image definition
├── docker-compose.yml              ← Service definitions
├── .env                            ← All configuration
├── entrypoint.sh                   ← Startup script (runs on each container start)
│
├── ioncube/                        ← IonCube Loader .so files
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_5.6.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_7.0.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_7.2.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_8.0.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_8.2.so
│   ├── ioncube_loader_lin_8.3.so
│   └── ioncube_loader_lin_8.4.so
│
├── nginx/
│   └── default.conf                ← Nginx configuration
│
├── php/
│   └── custom.ini                  ← PHP configuration
│
├── supervisor/
│   └── supervisord.conf            ← Supervisor configuration
│
├── src/                            ← Your project goes here
│
└── data/                           ← Persistent data (auto-created)
    ├── redis/                      ← Redis data
    ├── mariadb/                    ← MariaDB data
    └── logs/
        ├── nginx/                  ← Nginx logs
        ├── php/                    ← PHP logs
        └── supervisor/             ← Supervisor logs

🚀 Getting Started

Step 1: Download IonCube Loaders

Download the IonCube loader files from the official website:

https://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php

Download the Linux (64-bit) version:

File: ioncube_loaders_lin_x86-64.tar.gz
Extract and place the .so files inside the ioncube/ directory

Important: Only download files without the _ts suffix (Non-Thread Safe version for PHP-FPM).

Step 2: Configure .env

Open the .env file and configure your settings:

PHP_VERSION=8.2          # Desired PHP version
DB_NAME=wordpress        # Database name
DB_USER=wpuser           # Database user
DB_PASSWORD=yourpassword # Database password

Step 3: Build and Run

# First time or after Dockerfile changes
docker compose up -d --build

# After .env changes only
docker compose restart

Step 4: Place Your Project

Put your project files inside the src/ directory:

cp -r /path/to/your/project/* ./src/

⚙️ Environment Variables

# ==============================
# PHP Version (5.6 - 8.4)
# ==============================
PHP_VERSION=8.2

# ==============================
# PHP Limits
# ==============================
POST_MAX_SIZE=240M
UPLOAD_MAX_SIZE=240M
TIMEOUT=30
MEMORY_LIMIT=512M

# ==============================
# PHP-FPM Pool
# ==============================
PM_MAX_CHILDREN=64
PM_START_SERVERS=8
PM_MIN_SPARE_SERVERS=8
PM_MAX_SPARE_SERVERS=16
PM_MAX_SPAWN_RATE=32
PM_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

# ==============================
# PHP Security
# ==============================
PHP_SECURITY_DISABLED_FUNCTIONS=;
PHP_SECURITY_ENABLE_DL=Off
PHP_SECURITY_EXPOSE_PHP=Off
PHP_SECURITY_ERROR_REPORTING=E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
PHP_SECURITY_DISPLAY_ERRORS=Off
PHP_SECURITY_DISPLAY_STARTUP_ERRORS=Off

# ==============================
# OPcache
# ==============================
OPCACHE_ENABLE=1
OPCACHE_ENABLE_CLI=0
OPCACHE_JIT=tracing
OPCACHE_JIT_BUFFER_SIZE=256M
OPCACHE_VALIDATE_TIMESTAMPS=1
OPCACHE_REVALIDATE_FREQ=60
OPCACHE_MAX_ACCELERATED_FILES=32000
OPCACHE_MEMORY_CONSUMPTION=256
OPCACHE_INTERNED_STRINGS_BUFFER=16
OPCACHE_SAVE_COMMENTS=1
OPCACHE_FAST_SHUTDOWN=1

# ==============================
# Timezone
# ==============================
TZ=Asia/Tehran

# ==============================
# Nginx
# ==============================
NGINX_PORT=80

# ==============================
# MariaDB
# ==============================
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=strongrootpassword
DB_NAME=wordpress
DB_USER=wpuser
DB_PASSWORD=strongpassword

# ==============================
# Redis
# ==============================
REDIS_PASSWORD=strongpassword
REDIS_MAX_MEMORY=256mb
REDIS_MAX_MEMORY_POLICY=allkeys-lru

# ==============================
# Memcached
# ==============================
MEMCACHED_MEMORY=128
MEMCACHED_MAX_CONNECTIONS=1024

# ==============================
# phpMyAdmin
# ==============================
PMA_PORT=8080
PMA_ABSOLUTE_URI=

Build Image

docker rmi wp-docker-php-nginx --force
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 -t wp-docker-php-nginx .

Key Parameters

Parameter	Description
`PHP_VERSION`	PHP version (5.6–8.4) — requires rebuild
`MEMORY_LIMIT`	Max memory per PHP process
`PM_MAX_CHILDREN`	Max number of PHP-FPM workers
`OPCACHE_JIT`	Enable JIT compiler (PHP 8+ only)
`REDIS_MAX_MEMORY_POLICY`	Redis eviction policy when memory is full
`PMA_ABSOLUTE_URI`	Full phpMyAdmin URL when behind a reverse proxy

🧩 PHP Extensions

All of the following extensions are installed and enabled:

Extension	Purpose
`mysqli`, `pdo_mysql`	MySQL/MariaDB connection
`curl`	HTTP requests
`gd`, `imagick`	Image processing
`mbstring`	Multibyte string support
`xml`, `dom`, `simplexml`	XML processing
`zip`	Archive handling
`intl`	Internationalization
`bcmath`	Arbitrary precision math
`soap`	SOAP web services
`sockets`	Socket communication
`opcache`	PHP bytecode caching
`redis`	Redis connection
`memcached`	Memcached connection
`imap`	IMAP protocol
`ldap`	LDAP authentication
`gmp`	Large number arithmetic
`igbinary`	Optimized serialization
`ioncube`	Running encoded PHP files

🔐 IonCube Loader

Downloading the Files

Download the Linux (64-bit) version from ioncube.com/loaders.php.

Required files:

ioncube_loader_lin_5.6.so
ioncube_loader_lin_7.0.so
ioncube_loader_lin_7.1.so
ioncube_loader_lin_7.2.so
ioncube_loader_lin_7.3.so
ioncube_loader_lin_7.4.so
ioncube_loader_lin_8.0.so
ioncube_loader_lin_8.1.so
ioncube_loader_lin_8.2.so
ioncube_loader_lin_8.3.so
ioncube_loader_lin_8.4.so

Thread Safe vs Non-Thread Safe

Type	Suffix	Use Case
Non-Thread Safe	no `_ts`	PHP-FPM ✅
Thread Safe	`_ts`	Apache mod_php ❌

Only download the version without _ts.

Verify Installation

docker exec -it php-nginx-8.2 php -m | grep -i ioncube

Expected output:

ionCube Loader
the ionCube PHP Loader

🛠️ Services

PHP-FPM + Nginx

Project files go in /src
Nginx listens on the port defined by NGINX_PORT (default: 80)
PHP-FPM listens on 127.0.0.1:9000 (internal only)
Reverse proxy and SSL are managed by the user

MariaDB

Connect from inside the container:

mysql -h mariadb -u wpuser -p

WordPress wp-config.php settings:

define('DB_HOST', 'mariadb');
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress');
define('DB_USER', 'wpuser');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'yourpassword');

Redis

Connection details (from inside the container):

Host: redis
Port: 6379
Password: (value of REDIS_PASSWORD)

To use Redis with WordPress, install the Redis Object Cache plugin.

Memcached

Connection details (from inside the container):

Host: memcached
Port: 11211

phpMyAdmin

Available on port PMA_PORT (default: 8080):

http://localhost:8080

To enable with Traefik:

labels:
  - "traefik.enable=true"
  - "traefik.http.routers.pma.rule=Host(`pma.yourdomain.com`)"

💾 Volumes & Data

All data is stored alongside your project:

Host Path	Contents
`./src`	Your PHP/WordPress project
`./data/mariadb`	Database files
`./data/redis`	Redis persistent data
`./data/logs/nginx`	Nginx logs
`./data/logs/php`	PHP error logs
`./data/logs/supervisor`	Supervisor logs

🧰 Useful Commands

Container Management

# Start services
docker compose up -d

# Stop services
docker compose down

# Restart without rebuild
docker compose restart

# Rebuild and start
docker compose up -d --build

# Full rebuild (no cache)
docker compose build --no-cache
docker compose up -d

Accessing the Container

# Open shell
docker exec -it php-nginx-8.2 bash

# Check PHP version
docker exec -it php-nginx-8.2 php -v

# List loaded extensions
docker exec -it php-nginx-8.2 php -m

# Verify IonCube
docker exec -it php-nginx-8.2 php -m | grep -i ioncube

Log Monitoring

# Container logs
docker logs -f php-nginx-8.2

# Nginx error log
tail -f ./data/logs/nginx/error.log

# PHP error log
tail -f ./data/logs/php/error.log

Database Access

# From inside the php-nginx container
docker exec -it php-nginx-8.2 mysql -h mariadb -u wpuser -p

# Directly from the mariadb container
docker exec -it mariadb mariadb -u root -p

Switching PHP Version

# 1. Update PHP_VERSION in .env
PHP_VERSION=7.4

# 2. Rebuild
docker compose down
docker compose build --no-cache
docker compose up -d

⚠️ Important Notes

.htaccess Support

This image uses Nginx, which does not support .htaccess files. Any .htaccess rules must be converted to nginx/default.conf directives.

WordPress permalinks are already configured in Nginx:

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

To convert .htaccess rules to Nginx syntax, you can use winginx.com.

OPcache JIT

OPcache JIT is only supported from PHP 8.0 onwards. For PHP 5.6–7.4, JIT-related settings are automatically ignored.

Redis & Memcached

These are PHP extensions only — they allow PHP to communicate with Redis/Memcached servers. The actual Redis and Memcached services are already included in docker-compose.yml.

Mac Apple Silicon (ARM64)

IonCube Loader is not available for ARM64 architecture. The image is built with platform: linux/amd64 and runs via Rosetta on Apple Silicon Macs. On Linux x86-64 servers, there are no issues and no performance penalty.

Production Security

For production environments, it is strongly recommended to:

Set strong, unique passwords in .env
Add .env to .gitignore — never commit secrets to version control
Restrict phpMyAdmin access via Traefik with an authentication middleware
Never expose database ports (3306) publicly
Keep PHP_SECURITY_EXPOSE_PHP=Off (already the default)

🏗️ Architecture

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │           Docker Network             │
                    │                                      │
Internet ──────────►│  Nginx (port 80)                     │
(via Traefik)       │       │                              │
                    │       ▼                              │
                    │  PHP-FPM (127.0.0.1:9000)            │
                    │       │                              │
                    │  ┌────┴──────────────────────────┐   │
                    │  │             /src               │   │
                    │  │    Your PHP / WordPress App    │   │
                    │  └───────────────────────────────┘   │
                    │                                      │
                    │  MariaDB   ◄─────────────────────┐   │
                    │  Redis     ◄─────────────────────┤   │
                    │  Memcached ◄─────────────────────┘   │
                    │                                      │
                    │  phpMyAdmin (port 8080)               │
                    └─────────────────────────────────────┘

Reverse Proxy & SSL — managed by the user (Traefik recommended)
Domain configuration — managed by the user
Supervisor — automatically restarts Nginx and PHP-FPM if they crash

📝 License

MIT License

🤝 Contributing

Pull requests and issues are welcome!

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 12 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
ioncube		ioncube
nginx		nginx
php		php
src		src
supervisor		supervisor
.DS_Store		.DS_Store
.env.example		.env.example
.gitignore		.gitignore
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
README.md		README.md
README_FA.md		README_FA.md
docker-compose-sample.yml		docker-compose-sample.yml
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
entrypoint.sh		entrypoint.sh

asefg482/wp-php-docker

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🐳 Docker PHP-FPM + Nginx

📋 Table of Contents

✨ Features

📦 Requirements

📁 Project Structure

🚀 Getting Started

Step 1: Download IonCube Loaders

Step 2: Configure .env

Step 3: Build and Run

Step 4: Place Your Project

⚙️ Environment Variables

Build Image

Key Parameters

🧩 PHP Extensions

🔐 IonCube Loader

Downloading the Files

Thread Safe vs Non-Thread Safe

Verify Installation

🛠️ Services

PHP-FPM + Nginx

MariaDB

Redis

Memcached

phpMyAdmin

💾 Volumes & Data

🧰 Useful Commands

Container Management

Accessing the Container

Log Monitoring

Database Access

Switching PHP Version

⚠️ Important Notes

.htaccess Support

OPcache JIT

Redis & Memcached

Mac Apple Silicon (ARM64)

Production Security

🏗️ Architecture

📝 License

🤝 Contributing

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