How to Use Docker for PHP Development: Replacing WAMP/MAMP in 2016

Short answer: Create docker-compose.yml with three services: nginx (port 80), php (PHP-FPM 7.0), mysql (5.7). Mount your project directory as a volume. Run docker-compose up -d. All team members get identical environments regardless of their host OS.

---

docker-compose.yml

# docker-compose.yml — PHP 7.0 + nginx + MySQL 5.7
# Docker Compose file format version 2 (stable in 2016)
version: '2'

services:

  nginx:
    image: nginx:1.10-alpine
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html            # Project code
      - ./docker/nginx/vhost.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    depends_on:
      - php
    networks:
      - app-network

  php:
    build: ./docker/php            # Custom Dockerfile
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    environment:
      APP_ENV: local
      DB_HOST: mysql
      DB_DATABASE: myapp
      DB_USERNAME: myapp_user
      DB_PASSWORD: secret
    depends_on:
      - mysql
    networks:
      - app-network

  mysql:
    image: mysql:5.7
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"                # Expose for GUI tools (TablePlus, Sequel Pro)
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootsecret
      MYSQL_DATABASE: myapp
      MYSQL_USER: myapp_user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql  # Named volume = data persists between restarts
    networks:
      - app-network

  redis:
    image: redis:3.2-alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    networks:
      - app-network

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

volumes:
  mysql-data:
    driver: local

---

docker/php/Dockerfile

# docker/php/Dockerfile
FROM php:7.0-fpm

# Install PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql mbstring opcache

# Install Redis extension
RUN pecl install redis && docker-php-ext-enable redis

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

# Install development tools
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    git \
    unzip \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# PHP configuration
COPY php.ini /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/custom.ini

WORKDIR /var/www/html

---

docker/php/php.ini

; docker/php/php.ini
[PHP]
error_reporting = E_ALL
display_errors   = On
display_startup_errors = On
log_errors       = On
error_log        = /dev/stderr

; Performance (development settings)
memory_limit    = 256M
max_execution_time = 120
upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size   = 20M

; OPcache
opcache.enable         = 1
opcache.revalidate_freq = 0  ; In development: check for file changes on every request
opcache.validate_timestamps = 1

; Timezone
date.timezone = Asia/Bishkek

---

docker/nginx/vhost.conf

# docker/nginx/vhost.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/html/public;
    index index.php;

    # Laravel / Symfony / CodeIgniter front controller
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass   php:9000;   # Service name from docker-compose
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include        fastcgi_params;
    }

    # Static files: don't pass to PHP
    location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|woff|woff2)$ {
        expires 30d;
        access_log off;
    }

    # Security: block access to hidden files
    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
    }
}

---

Commands

# Start all containers
docker-compose up -d

# Stop
docker-compose down

# Stop and remove volumes (DELETES database data)
docker-compose down -v

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f
docker-compose logs -f php      # Just PHP logs
docker-compose logs --tail=100  # Last 100 lines

# Run commands inside PHP container
docker-compose exec php bash
docker-compose exec php composer install
docker-compose exec php php artisan migrate
docker-compose exec php php artisan tinker

# MySQL shell
docker-compose exec mysql mysql -u myapp_user -psecret myapp

# Rebuild PHP container after Dockerfile changes
docker-compose build php
docker-compose up -d --no-deps php

---

The Volume Mount Performance Problem (2016 Mac/Windows)

# PROBLEM: On Mac and Windows, volume mounts were SLOW in 2016
# Docker used osxfs/VBoxFS — up to 10x slower than Linux native filesystem
# A Laravel artisan command taking 0.3s on Linux took 3s on Mac

# Partial solutions in 2016:

# Solution 1: Exclude vendor/ and node_modules/ from sync
# Use named volumes for these (inside container, not synced)
services:
  php:
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html                         # Sync project
      - vendor:/var/www/html/vendor             # Don't sync vendor/
      - node_modules:/var/www/html/node_modules # Don't sync node_modules/

volumes:
  vendor:
  node_modules:

# Then copy vendor from container after composer install:
# docker-compose exec php composer install
# The vendor/ is now in the named volume, not synced to host

# Solution 2: docker-sync (tool for faster macOS volume mounting)
# gem install docker-sync
# docker-sync.yml:
# sync:
#   app-sync:
#     src: '.'
#     sync_strategy: 'unison'

# This was the community fix in 2016 — native fixes came later

---

.dockerignore

# .dockerignore — files not sent to Docker build context
.git
node_modules
vendor
*.log
.env
.env.local
docker/
tests/

---

Production vs Development

# docker-compose.prod.yml (override for production)
version: '2'
services:
  php:
    environment:
      APP_ENV: production
      APP_DEBUG: 'false'
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html   # In prod, consider copying files INTO image instead

# Development:
docker-compose up -d

# Production:
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

The productivity gain from Docker in 2016 was immediate: onboarding a new developer went from "set up MAMP, install PHP extensions, configure MySQL, debug permission issues" (half a day) to git clone && docker-compose up -d (15 minutes). That alone justified the learning curve.