About php-devbox

php-devbox is a containerized PHP 8.5 for coding exercises or local software development. It comes preconfigured with all the tools you'll need. php-devbox is designed to run PHP at the command line, without a web server. The project is maintained by Stefan Priebsch stefan@thephp.cc.

php-devbox works particularly well for code examples on https://the-fluent-developer.com and for coding exercises in Stefan's trainings at https://thephpcc.academy.

Installation

You will need either Podman or Docker installed.

Download the latest release from https://github.com/spriebsch/php-devbox/releases and extract it.

Change to the php-devbox directory.

Run

sudo bin/install

to build the container image and set a symlink so that you are able to run php-devbox from anywhere.

That's it! You are done and can now enjoy running PHP 8.5 in a container.

Working inside the container

In the shell, change to your project directory (the directory that contains the PHP code you want to work on). Usually, your project directory will have a src/ folder containing the PHP code. Do not change into the src/ folder, but stay in the project's root directory.

So from your project directory, run the container with

php-devbox

This will start a container with the name php-devbox, mount your current directory into /workspace in the container and start a shell inside the container.

You can now run PHP scripts with

php src/example.php

Running commands inside the container

You can execute any command directly inside the container by passing it to php-devbox. If no command is provided, an interactive shell is started.

Examples:

# Show PHP version
php-devbox php -v

# Run a PHP script
php-devbox php src/example.php

# Run Composer in your current project
php-devbox composer install

# Run PHP inline
php-devbox php -r 'echo "Hello from container!\n";'

Running tools

The following tools are pre-installed in the container:

# Run PHPUnit
phpunit

# Run Composer
composer install
composer require package/name
composer update

# Run PHIVE (PHP Installation Verification Environment)
phive

# Run PHPStan
phpstan

# Run Infection
infection

# Run PHP-CS-Fixer
php-cs-fixer

# Run PHPBench
phpbench

# Run phpab (PHP Autoload Builder)
phpab

# Rebuild the autoloader
update-autoloader

Remember that contents of the working directory /workspace inside the container are in fact located in the project directory on your host machine. Any changes you make to the files in the container will be permanent on your host machine, even after you stop the container.

Exiting the container

To leave the container, use

exit

Troubleshooting

"Error: call this script from the php-devbox directory"

The bin/install and bin/build scripts must be run from the root of the php-devbox directory.

Docker permission issues

If you are using Docker, you might need to run php-devbox with sudo if your user is not in the docker group.

sudo php-devbox

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is there no git configuration in the container?

While git is installed, your local git setup usually requires SSH keys and your global git configuration. The container does not have access to these files by default.

You should therefore perform any git operations on the host itself.