Docker for Laravel Development

Docker simplifies development environment setup and ensures consistency across different machines. Let's create a complete Docker setup for Laravel.

Docker Compose Configuration

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3.8'
services:
  app:
    build: .
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    ports:
      - '8000:8000'
    
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
    
  redis:
    image: redis:alpine

Dockerfile for Laravel

Create an optimized Dockerfile:

FROM php:8.3-fpm

# Install dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    git curl zip unzip

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

WORKDIR /var/www/html

Volume Management

Best practices for volumes:

• Mount source code for hot reloading
• Use named volumes for database persistence
• Exclude vendor and node_modules

Development Workflow

We'll cover Docker Compose configuration, volume management, and best practices for Laravel development with Docker, including tips for debugging and running artisan commands.