docker-php

Canonical source repository for the versioned PHP container images published as ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php.

Purpose

This repository contains the Docker build sources for the PHP image family published as ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php.

It also documents what you get by default: tags, base images, and the general extension set.

Example (minimal)

There is a minimal runnable example in examples/minimal/ that starts Apache and PHP-FPM with conservative defaults and exposes HTTP on http://localhost:8080.

Package Overview

• Image: ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php
• Supported tags: 5.6, 7.1, 7.3, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5
• Alias tag: latest -> 8.5
• Platforms: linux/amd64, linux/arm64
• Runtime style: php-fpm

Why This Image Family Exists

These images provide a controlled PHP runtime set for a Docker stack across both legacy and current application workloads.

The practical goal is simple:

• keep old applications runnable when they still require historical PHP branches
• offer newer PHP variants for current workloads
• standardize extension availability across environments
• publish everything through one clean GHCR package with clear tags instead of many fragmented package names

Tag Strategy

The package uses one repository name and separates runtime variants through tags.

Current tags:

• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:5.6
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:7.1
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:7.3
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:8.1
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:8.2
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:8.3
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:8.4
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:8.5
• ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:latest

This approach keeps the registry tidy and makes it obvious that every runtime belongs to the same maintained image family.

Base Images By Tag

Tag	Base image
5.6	php:5.6.40-fpm
7.1	php:7.1-fpm-stretch
7.3	php:7.3-fpm-stretch
8.1	php:8.1-fpm-bullseye
8.2	php:8.2-fpm-bookworm
8.3	php:8.3-fpm-bookworm
8.4	php:8.4-fpm-bookworm
8.5	php:8.5-fpm-bookworm

Included Extensions

The image family focuses on a practical web stack with database, text, archive, graphics, mail, and integration support.

Commonly included capabilities across the family include:

• gd
• pdo
• pdo_mysql
• mysqli
• bz2
• gettext
• intl
• mbstring
• soap
• sockets
• exif
• xsl
• zip
• imagick
• memcached
• apcu
• timezonedb
• gnupg

Version-specific notes:

• 5.6 also includes dom, imap, pspell, and legacy mysql
• 7.1 and 7.3 include dom, imap, phar, pspell, and bcmath
• 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 include imap, bcmath, and opcache
• 8.4 includes bcmath, opcache, and enables imap from PECL
• 8.5 currently includes bcmath but does not currently add opcache or imap in the image definition

Why These Images Are Good To Use

These images are useful because they replace machine-specific PHP setups with a documented, portable runtime contract.

That is valuable when you want:

• reproducible PHP behavior across machines and environments
• a stable set of common extensions already built in
• a clean path for running both old and modern applications side by side
• a single GHCR package with predictable version tags
• multi-architecture support for x86_64 deployment targets and Apple Silicon development hosts

Intended Use Cases

Use this package when you need:

• PHP-FPM containers behind Apache or another reverse proxy
• a maintained tag map for several PHP branches
• one place to discover which runtime contains which capabilities
• a documented source repository linked from the GHCR package page

Pull

docker pull ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:8.5
docker pull ghcr.io/justgetschwifty/php:latest

Relationship To The Build Sources

This repository is the canonical source for the Dockerfiles used to build the published PHP image family.

The images are feature-rich, but the goal is still to stay reasonably small (within the constraints of bundled extensions). The default example configuration is conservative and targets servers with limited RAM and CPU.