Image Tiers: Slim / Standard / Full

Image Tiers Comparison

Cbox Base Images come in three tiers optimized for different use cases.

Quick Decision Guide

What do you need?
│
├─ PDF generation, browser testing (Browsershot/Dusk)?
│  └─ Full Tier (~700MB)
│
├─ Image processing (ImageMagick, vips), Node.js?
│  └─ Standard Tier (~250MB) ✅ DEFAULT
│
└─ Minimal footprint, APIs, microservices?
   └─ Slim Tier (~120MB)

Tier Overview

Tier	Size	Best For	Tag Suffix
Slim	~120MB	APIs, microservices, minimal footprint	`-slim`
Standard	~250MB	Most Laravel/PHP apps (DEFAULT)	(none)
Full	~700MB	Browsershot, Dusk, PDF generation	`-full`

Tag Format

{image-type}:{php-version}-{os}[-tier][-rootless]

Examples:
php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm              # Standard (default)
php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-slim         # Slim
php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-full         # Full
php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-rootless     # Standard + rootless
php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-slim-rootless  # Slim + rootless
php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-full-rootless  # Full + rootless

Extensions by Tier

Slim Tier (All Core Extensions)

PHP Extensions:

Extension	Purpose
`opcache`	Bytecode caching
`pdo_mysql`, `mysqli`	MySQL/MariaDB
`pdo_pgsql`, `pgsql`	PostgreSQL
`redis`	Redis cache/sessions
`apcu`	In-memory cache
`mongodb`	MongoDB NoSQL
`igbinary`	Fast serialization
`msgpack`	MessagePack serialization
`grpc`	gRPC protocol support
`zip`	ZIP archives
`intl`	Internationalization
`bcmath`	Precision math
`gd`	Images (WebP, JPEG, PNG)
`exif`	Image metadata
`pcntl`	Process control
`sockets`	Low-level networking
`soap`	SOAP web services
`xsl`	XSLT transformations
`ldap`	LDAP/Active Directory
`bz2`	bzip2 compression
`calendar`	Date calculations
`gettext`	GNU translations
`shmop`, `sysvmsg`, `sysvsem`, `sysvshm`	IPC
`gmp`	Arbitrary precision math

Tools:

Composer 2
Cbox Init (process manager)
curl, wget, git, unzip

Standard Tier (Slim + Image Processing + Node.js)

Everything in Slim, plus:

Component	Description
`imagick`	ImageMagick for complex image operations, PDF support
`vips`	libvips for high-performance image processing (4-10x faster)
`gd` (AVIF)	AVIF image format support
Node.js 22	JavaScript runtime
npm	Node package manager
`exiftool`	Advanced image metadata
`ghostscript`	PDF/PostScript support
`librsvg`	SVG rendering
`icu-data-full`	Complete ICU locale data

Full Tier (Standard + Browser Automation)

Everything in Standard, plus:

Component	Description
Chromium	Headless browser
`nss`	Network Security Services
`harfbuzz`	Text shaping
`ttf-freefont`	Free fonts

Environment Variables (auto-set):

PUPPETEER_SKIP_CHROMIUM_DOWNLOAD=true
PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH=/usr/bin/chromium-browser

Size Comparison

Tier	Size	Use Case
Slim	~120MB	APIs, microservices
Standard	~250MB	Most apps
Full	~700MB	Browser automation

Performance Characteristics

Startup Time

Tier	Cold Start	Reason
Slim	~800ms	Fewer extensions
Standard	~1000ms	ImageMagick, Node.js
Full	~1200ms	Chromium loaded

Memory Footprint

Tier	Base RAM	Per PHP Worker
Slim	~15MB	~30MB
Standard	~25MB	~45MB
Full	~35MB	~55MB

Use Case Matrix

Scenario	Recommended	Why
REST API	Slim	Minimal footprint
GraphQL API	Slim	Core extensions sufficient
Laravel app	Standard	ImageMagick, Node for assets
Symfony app	Standard	Balanced feature set
WordPress	Standard	Image processing needed
PDF generation	Full	Requires Chromium
Browsershot	Full	Requires Chromium
Laravel Dusk	Full	Requires Chromium
Puppeteer	Full	Requires Chromium
Microservice	Slim	Smallest footprint

Migration Between Tiers

Upgrading to a Larger Tier

# From Slim to Standard
- image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-slim
+ image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm

# From Standard to Full
- image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm
+ image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-full

Downgrading to a Smaller Tier

Validation checklist:

Check composer.json for extension requirements
Search code for extension_loaded() calls
Test all features in staging
Monitor error logs for missing extensions

# From Standard to Slim (if no ImageMagick/Node needed)
- image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm
+ image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-slim

Rootless Variants

All tiers support rootless execution (runs as www-data user):

Tag	Description
`8.4-bookworm-rootless`	Standard + rootless
`8.4-bookworm-slim-rootless`	Slim + rootless
`8.4-bookworm-full-rootless`	Full + rootless

When to use rootless:

Kubernetes with security policies
OpenShift
Security-sensitive environments
Compliance requirements (CIS benchmarks)

Configuration

All tiers share the same configuration options:

environment:
  # PHP Settings
  PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: "512M"
  PHP_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME: "60"

  # OPcache (enabled by default)
  PHP_OPCACHE_ENABLE: "1"
  PHP_OPCACHE_JIT: "tracing"

Examples

Slim Tier (API)

services:
  api:
    image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-slim
    ports:
      - "8000:80"
    environment:
      PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: "256M"

Standard Tier (Laravel)

services:
  app:
    image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm
    ports:
      - "8000:80"
    environment:
      LARAVEL_SCHEDULER: "true"

Full Tier (Browsershot)

services:
  app:
    image: ghcr.io/cboxdk/php-baseimages/php-fpm-nginx:8.4-bookworm-full
    ports:
      - "8000:80"
    environment:
      # Chromium is pre-configured
      PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: "1G"