Laravel Docker Build (beginner friendly)

Docker Compose provides an excellent way to containerize Laravel applications for both development and production environments. This guide will walk you through creating a complete Docker setup for Laravel applications.

1. Project Structure

First, create the following structure in your Laravel project:

your-laravel-project/
├── .docker/
│   └── nginx/
│       ├── nginx.conf
│       └── sites-enabled/
│           └── nginx.conf
├── Dockerfile
└── docker-compose.yml

2. Creating the Nginx Configuration

Create the Nginx configuration file in .docker/nginx/sites-enabled/nginx.conf:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/html/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

    index index.php;

    charset utf-8;

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

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
        fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 600;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

3. Creating the Dockerfile

Create a Dockerfile in your project root:

FROM php:8.2-fpm

# Install system dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    libzip-dev \
    zip \
    nginx \
    curl

# Clear cache
RUN apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Install PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql zip
RUN pecl install redis && docker-php-ext-enable redis

# Configure Nginx
COPY .docker/nginx/sites-enabled/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
RUN rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

# Install composer
RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

# Copy application
COPY . /var/www/html

# Set working directory
WORKDIR /var/www/html

# Install dependencies
RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

# Set permissions
RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/storage /var/www/html/bootstrap/cache

# Create entrypoint script
COPY <<'EOF' /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh
#!/bin/bash
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan optimize
php-fpm -D && nginx -g "daemon off;"
EOF

RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh

EXPOSE 80

ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh"]

4. Creating Docker Compose Configuration

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    environment:
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_PORT: 3306
      DB_DATABASE: laravel
      DB_USERNAME: laravel_user
      DB_PASSWORD: secret
      REDIS_HOST: redis
      REDIS_PORT: 6379
    networks:
      - laravel-network

  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
      MYSQL_USER: laravel_user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/mysql
    networks:
      - laravel-network

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    volumes:
      - redis-data:/data
    networks:
      - laravel-network

volumes:
  db-data:
  redis-data:

networks:
  laravel-network:
    driver: bridge

5. Running the Application

To start your Laravel application:

# Build the images
docker-compose build

# Start the containers
docker-compose up -d

6. Additional Configuration Tips

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in your Laravel project and make sure to update the database and Redis connection details to match the Docker service names:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=db
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=laravel_user
DB_PASSWORD=secret

REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

Development vs Production

For development environments, you might want to add volumes to enable hot reloading:

services:
  app:
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
      - /var/www/html/vendor
      - /var/www/html/node_modules

7. Final Steps

After deployment, you can access your Laravel application at http://localhost:8080. The setup includes:

• PHP-FPM with Nginx
• MySQL database
• Redis for caching
• Automated container orchestration
• Proper networking between services
• Volume persistence for database and cache

This Docker Compose setup provides a solid foundation for Laravel deployments, whether in development or production environments. Remember to adjust configurations according to your specific needs and security requirements.