Docker-compose and composer for laravel project - docker

Question

I'm trying to use docker ( first time at all ) to build a development env for my laravel projects.
I have read the documentation and looks like that docker-compose.yml file is the way to go, at least in my case.
I'm trying to create a LEMP env and this is my compose file:
version: "3.1"
services:
memcached:
image: memcached:alpine
container_name: 01dev-memcached
mysql:
image: mysql:8.0
container_name: 01dev-mysql
working_dir: /application
volumes:
- ./:/application
environment:
- MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=laravel
- MYSQL_DATABASE=laravel
- MYSQL_USER=laravel
- MYSQL_PASSWORD=laravel
ports:
- "8082:3306"
webserver:
image: nginx:alpine
container_name: 01dev-webserver
working_dir: /application
volumes:
- ./:/application
- ./phpdocker/nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
ports:
- "8080:80"
php-fpm:
build: phpdocker/php-fpm
container_name: 01dev-php-fpm
working_dir: /application
volumes:
- ./:/application
- ./phpdocker/php-fpm/php-ini-overrides.ini:/etc/php/7.3/fpm/conf.d/99-overrides.ini
My nginx.conf file:
server {
listen 80 default;
client_max_body_size 108M;
access_log /var/log/nginx/application.access.log;
root /application/public;
index index.php;
if (!-e $request_filename) {
rewrite ^.*$ /index.php last;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass php-fpm:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE "error_log=/var/log/nginx/application_php_errors.log";
fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
since is a Laravel application I need to set the public folder as root, so in my nginx.conf I have set it.
If I manually create the public folder with a index.php with just a echo "hello"; I'm able to connect and see the string on http://localhost:8080.
Now I need to use composer to install and to manage my project so I found a composer image and I have added it under services in docker-compose.yml:
composer:
restart: 'no'
container_name: 01dev-composer
image: "composer"
command: install
volumes:
- ./:/application
As far as I know with volumes I bind my host to the container path, so it should point outside the public folder, am I right?
If I run docker-compose up I see that the composer container exit with code 1:
01dev-composer | Composer could not find a composer.json file in /app
01dev-composer | To initialize a project, please create a composer.json file as described in the https://getcomposer.org/ "Getting Started" section
01dev-composer exited with code 1
And I'm not able to connect to it:
docker-compose exec composer install
ERROR: No container found for composer_1
How can I use composer in my project? There is a better way to do that?

Answer 1

See composer Dockerfile:
WORKDIR /app
This image's working dir is /app, and also from the guide, all example mount code directory to the /app folder in container.
Besides, the error also tells you that:
Composer could not find a composer.json file in /app
So, the thing you need to do is mount your code directory to /app & make sure this service start first, then it will generate vendor folder in your source code directory:
volumes:
- ./:/app