Why is there no php.ini file when I install PHP in a docker container?

Question

I'm using docker-compose to setup a minimal nginx + php-fpm application but for some reason there is no php.ini file on the docker container (I know because phpinfo() says Loaded Configuration File: (none)).

Here's my docker-compose.yml file:

web: image: nginx ports: - "8080:80" volumes: - ./site.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/site.conf links: - php php: image: php:5-fpm volumes: - .root:/var/www/html:ro command: bash -c "apt-get update && apt-get install -y php5-mysql && php-fpm" 

site.conf is pretty straightforward as well:

server { index index.php; server_name local.myspicesage.com; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log; root /var/www/html; location ~ \.php$ { try_files $uri =404; fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$; fastcgi_pass php:9000; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info; } } 

And finally I have the most basic index.php possible:

<?php echo phpinfo(); 

I really don't want to start from scratch if I don't have to. Is there supposed to be a php.ini file included with the php:5-fpm docker image? If not, is there a generic file I could use to start with?

Answer 1

The container also has /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d and will read and parse every configuration file in that directory.

Notice that it will still say Loaded Configuration File => (none), but that it will also say Additional .ini files parsed and there you will see it walking through that directory ... and the various files that the container puts there: docker-php-ext-XXX.ini. (So it's rather misleading for it to say (none) ...)

It's useful to do things like this:

 php -r 'phpinfo();' | grep -i conf 

... which in this case will very quickly show you only the lines in PHP's voluminous output that contain (in upper or lower case) the string conf.

Answer 2

You need to add php.ini file:

1. Run temporary php container

docker run -d --name php-tmp php:5-fpm

2. Copy php archive

docker cp php-tmp:/usr/src/php.tar.xz .

3. Extract php.ini-development or php.ini-production file to config dir. Example:

compose_root/php/php.ini-development

4. Add volume with php.ini in php container

   volumes:

   • .root:/var/www/html:ro
   • ./php/php.ini-development:/usr/local/etc/php/php.ini