5-Minute Quickstart

Get a production-ready PHP environment running in under 5 minutes.

Really Quick Test (30 seconds)

Just want to test the image? Run these docker commands:

# Test PHP version and extensions
docker run --rm --entrypoint php ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm -v

# List all loaded extensions
docker run --rm --entrypoint php ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm -m

# See available tools
docker run --rm --entrypoint sh ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm -c "php -v && composer -V && node -v"

# Start a web server with current directory mounted
docker run --rm -p 8000:80 -v $(pwd):/var/www/html ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm

For a proper project setup, continue below.

Prerequisites

• Docker 20.10+ (docker --version)
• Docker Compose (docker compose version)

Step 1: Create Project

mkdir my-php-app && cd my-php-app
mkdir public

Step 2: Create Test File

cat > public/index.php << 'EOF'
<?php
echo "<h1>Cbox Works!</h1>";
echo "<p>PHP " . PHP_VERSION . " with " . count(get_loaded_extensions()) . " extensions</p>";
EOF

Step 3: Create docker-compose.yml

services:
  app:
    image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm
    ports:
      - "8000:80"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html

Step 4: Start

docker compose up

Step 5: Open Browser

Visit http://localhost:8000

What You Get

• PHP 8.4 with 40+ extensions (Redis, ImageMagick, MongoDB, etc.)
• Nginx with security headers
• OPcache JIT enabled
• Automatic health checks
• Graceful shutdown handling

Quick Commands

docker compose up -d          # Start background
docker compose logs -f        # View logs
docker compose down           # Stop
docker compose exec app sh    # Shell access
curl localhost:8000/health    # Health check

Next Steps

Available Images

Cbox Base Images use Debian 12 (Bookworm) for maximum compatibility:

ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.5-bookworm
ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm
ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.3-bookworm
ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.2-bookworm

Tag Formats

Troubleshooting

Port in use? Change 8000:80 to 8001:80

Permission errors? Cbox auto-fixes Laravel directories. Manual: docker compose exec app chown -R www-data:www-data storage

More help? See Common Issues