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Cbox Base Images Documentation

Cbox Base Images Documentation

Welcome to the comprehensive documentation for Cbox base images! This documentation is designed to help developers of all levels get started quickly and master advanced usage.

🎯 Start Here

New to Cbox? Start with these guides:

  1. 5-Minute Quickstart - Get running in 5 minutes
  2. Complete Laravel Guide - Full Laravel setup (most popular)
  3. Extending Images - Customize for your needs

Quick Tier Selection

Cbox images come in three tiers:

Tier Tag Size Best For
Slim -slim ~120MB APIs, microservices
Standard (none) ~250MB Most apps (DEFAULT)
Full -full ~700MB Browsershot, Dusk, PDF 
# Standard tier (DEFAULT) - Most Laravel/PHP apps
image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm

# Slim tier - APIs, microservices
image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-slim

# Full tier - Browsershot, Dusk, PDF generation
image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-full

📚 Documentation Structure

Getting Started

Perfect for beginners and those evaluating Cbox.

Framework Guides

Step-by-step guides for popular PHP frameworks.

Advanced Topics

Deep dives for experienced users customizing Cbox.

  • Extending Images ⭐ Most requested

    • Add custom PHP extensions
    • Install system packages
    • Custom configurations
    • Initialization scripts

  • Custom Extensions

    • PECL extension examples
    • Compiling from source
    • Version pinning

  • Custom Initialization

    • Startup script patterns
    • Wait for dependencies
    • Database migrations

  • Performance Tuning

    • PHP-FPM optimization
    • OPcache configuration
    • Nginx tuning

  • Security Hardening

    • Security best practices
    • CVE management
    • Secrets management

Reference Documentation

Complete technical reference materials.

  • Quick Reference ⭐ Copy-paste snippets

    • Minimal setups for all frameworks
    • Common environment variables
    • Quick commands

  • Environment Variables

    • Complete env var list
    • Laravel-specific variables
    • Symfony-specific variables

  • Configuration Options

    • PHP.ini customization
    • PHP-FPM pool configuration
    • Nginx server blocks

  • Available Extensions

    • Complete extension list (40+)
    • Extension usage examples
    • Version information

  • Health Checks

    • Health check internals
    • Monitoring integration
    • Custom health checks

  • Multi-Service vs Separate

    • Architecture decision guide
    • When to use each
    • Trade-offs explained

Help & Troubleshooting

Solutions to common issues and systematic debugging.

  • Common Issues

    • FAQ-style solutions
    • Copy-paste fixes
    • Quick diagnostics

  • Debugging Guide

    • Systematic debugging process
    • Log analysis
    • Performance profiling

  • Migration Guide

    • From ServerSideUp images
    • From Bitnami images
    • From custom images

  • Changelog - What's new in each release

🔍 Find What You Need

By Role

Junior Developer / First Time User:

  1. 5-Minute Quickstart
  2. Laravel Guide or your framework
  3. Common Issues

Experienced Developer:

  1. Extending Images
  2. Custom Extensions
  3. Performance Tuning

DevOps / SRE:

  1. Production Deployment
  2. Security Hardening
  3. Health Checks

Team Lead / Architect:

  1. Multi-Service vs Separate
  2. Introduction (comparisons)
  3. Choosing a Variant

By Task

"I want to get started quickly" → 5-Minute Quickstart

"I need to add a PHP extension" → Extending Images

"My Laravel app won't connect to MySQL" → Laravel Guide - Common Mistakes

"How do I deploy to production?" → Production Deployment

"Something is broken, I need help" → Common Issues

"Which tier should I use?" → Choosing a Tier

"Single container or separate containers?" → Multi-Service vs Separate

"How do I debug Xdebug?" → Development Workflow

📋 Documentation Status

✅ Complete (All Phases)

Phase 1 - Foundation

  • ✅ 5-Minute Quickstart
  • ✅ Laravel Complete Guide
  • ✅ Extending Images Guide
  • ✅ Slim README with navigation

Phase 2 - Framework & Reference

  • ✅ Symfony Complete Guide
  • ✅ WordPress Complete Guide
  • ✅ Environment Variables Reference
  • ✅ Configuration Options Reference

Phase 3 - Advanced Topics

  • ✅ Production Deployment Guide
  • ✅ Development Workflow Guide
  • ✅ Performance Tuning Guide
  • ✅ Security Hardening Guide

Phase 4 - Troubleshooting

  • ✅ Common Issues FAQ
  • ✅ Debugging Guide
  • ✅ Migration Guide
  • ✅ Troubleshooting Index

Phase 5 - Extended Reference

  • ✅ Introduction (Why Cbox?)
  • ✅ Installation Guide
  • ✅ Choosing a Tier (Slim vs Standard vs Full)
  • ✅ Custom Extensions Guide
  • ✅ Custom Initialization Guide
  • ✅ Reverse Proxy & mTLS Guide

📅 Future Enhancements

  • 📝 Available Extensions Reference (detailed)
  • 📝 Health Checks Reference (detailed)

🤝 Contributing to Documentation

Found a typo? Want to add examples? We welcome documentation improvements!

Quick fixes:

  • Click "Edit this page" on any doc
  • Make your changes
  • Submit a pull request

New pages:

  1. Check Documentation Plan
  2. Follow the Style Guide
  3. Submit a pull request

📖 Documentation Principles

Our documentation follows these principles:

  1. Copy-Paste Ready - All examples work without modification
  2. Progressive Complexity - Start simple, add details progressively
  3. Real Explanations - Explain WHY, not just WHAT
  4. Inline Troubleshooting - Common mistakes included with solutions
  5. Expected Output - Show what success looks like
  6. Tested Examples - Every code snippet is tested

Inspired by ServerSideUp's excellent documentation standards.

💬 Get Help

Ready to dive in? → 5-Minute Quickstart 🚀