Setting up Laravel with Docker - Part 3

In previous posts of this series we setup Laravel application with docker and docker compose. This this final part of series, we add a utility script to simplify the deployment.

By Subash Adhikari · · 4 min read

Updated . Written in 2018. Commands, prices, and links in this piece may be out of date.

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Stacks of colourful shipping containers under a blue sky

This is part 3 of my series on setting up Laravel with Docker. In part 1, we set up a Laravel application using a Dockerfile. In part 2, we improved on that by using docker-compose. Instead of building the container from scratch, we took the official Docker images and put them together into a working application. If you haven't read part 2 yet, I'd strongly suggest doing that first.

If you work in a team and not everyone is familiar with Docker, there's a steep learning curve to using our containers. So in this post we'll build on what we have and add a small utility script that makes it easy to interact with the containers.

Creating the script#

In the root of your application (~/laravel), create a file called container and paste the following code into it. I'll explain what the script does later in the post.

markup--code
#!/bin/bash -e
 
SRC_DIR=~/laravel
DOCKER="docker-compose run --rm -w /var/www/html app"
 
function usage {
  echo -e "Laravel Docker CLI - Tool to work with laravel docker container.\n"
  echo -e "usage: dev [command]"
  echo -e "   or: dev [command] [arguments]"
  echo -e "   or: dev [docker_commands] [arguments]\n"
  echo "Arguments:"
  echo "    start        Start docker container"
  echo "    stop         Stop docker container"
  echo "    status       Check status of docker container"
  echo "    ssh          SSH into the docker container."
  echo "    composer     Run composer command in the docker container."
  echo "    php          Run php cli in the docker container."
  echo "    help         Display usage"
}
 
if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
  if [ "$1" == "ssh" ]; then
    docker exec -it laravel_app_1 bash
  elif [ "$1" == "start" ]; then
    docker-compose up -d
  elif [ "$1" == "stop" ]; then
    docker-compose down
  elif [ "$1" == "status" ]; then
    docker-compose ps
  elif [ "$1" == "php" ] || [ "$1" == "composer" ]; then
    $DOCKER "$@"
  elif [ "$1" == "help" ] || [ "$1" == "-h" ] || [ "$1" == "--help" ]; then
    usage; exit
  else
    usage; exit
  fi
else
  usage; exit
fi

Usage#

Make the script executable by running this in your terminal.

bash
chmod +x container

Now you can run it. Try this:

bash
./container -h

That prints the help for the script, which is whatever the usage function outputs.

text
Laravel Docker CLI - Tool to work with laravel docker container.
 
usage: dev [command]
   or: dev [command] [arguments]
   or: dev [docker_commands] [arguments]
 
Arguments:
    start        Start docker container
    stop         Stop docker container
    status       Check status of docker container
    ssh          SSH into the docker container.
    composer     Run composer command in the docker container.
    php          Run php cli in the docker container.
    help         Display usage

Now you can use PHP and Composer without having to remember the Docker commands.

bash
./container composer install
./container php -v

Explanation of script#

The shebang on the first line tells the system to run this as a bash script.

bash
#!/bin/bash -e

Then we set up a couple of variables that we use later in the script.

bash
SRC_DIR=~/laravel
DOCKER="docker-compose run --rm -w /var/www/html app"

As the name suggests, the usage function prints out how to use the script. If you type ./container -h, this is what shows up in the console.

bash
function usage {
  echo -e "Laravel Docker CLI - Tool to work with laravel docker container.\n"
  echo -e "usage: dev [command]"
  echo -e "   or: dev [command] [arguments]"
  echo -e "   or: dev [docker_commands] [arguments]\n"
  echo "Arguments:"
  echo "    start        Start docker container"
  echo "    stop         Stop docker container"
  echo "    status       Check status of docker container"
  echo "    ssh          SSH into the docker container."
  echo "    composer     Run composer command in the docker container."
  echo "    php          Run php cli in the docker container."
  echo "    help         Display usage"
}

Next we check whether any parameters were passed to the script. If there weren't any, we print the usage to the terminal.

bash
if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
   ...
else
   usage; exit;
fi

If parameters were passed, we check what they are. If the first one is ssh, we run the command that drops you into a shell inside the container.

bash
if [ "$1" == "ssh" ]; then
    docker exec -it laravel_app_1 bash

This is the core of the script. We do different things depending on the parameter. If it's php or composer, we run that command inside the container.

bash
elif [ "$1" == "php" ] || [ "$1" == "composer" ]; then
    $DOCKER "$@"

"$@" here means all the parameters that were passed to the container script. Say you type this in the console:

bash
./container php -v

That gets expanded into:

bash
docker-compose run --rm -w /var/www/html app php -v

And it prints the version of PHP installed in the container.

Conclusion#

This is a very simple example, but you can take the same idea and use similar scripts to manage much more complex applications. It's especially useful in a team. Not everyone has to know or remember the Docker commands. Just give them scripts that do everything they need inside the container.

Setting up laravel with docker: Part 1

Setting up laravel with docker: Part 2

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