wp-docker-compose

A Docker Compose development environment for WordPress plugin and theme development.

Features

• WordPress with PHP 8.2
• MySQL 8 database
• Adminer for database management
• Fake SMTP server for email testing
• Debug logging enabled by default
• Increased upload limits (64MB)

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Setup

1. Copy the environment file:

   cp .env.example .env

   Update .env changing defaults.

2. Start the containers:

   docker compose up

3. Access WordPress at http://wp-docker.localhost (or your configured host and port)

Configuration

Configure the environment via .env:

Variable	Default	Description
WP_HOST	wp-docker.localhost	WordPress hostname
WP_PORT	80	WordPress port
WP_DEBUG	true	Enable WordPress debug mode
ADMINER_PORT	8081	Adminer port
SMTP_HTTP_PORT	8082	Fake SMTP web interface port

Services

Service	URL	Description
WordPress	http://${WP_HOST}:${WP_PORT}	Main WordPress site
Adminer	http://localhost:${ADMINER_PORT}	Database management UI
Fake SMTP	http://localhost:${SMTP_HTTP_PORT}	View sent emails

Database Credentials

• Host: db
• Database: exampledb
• User: exampleuser
• Password: examplepass

Directory Structure

The wp-content/ directory is mounted to the host for development:

wp-content/
├── mu-plugins/    # Must-use plugins
├── plugins/       # Regular plugins
└── themes/        # Themes

Git Configuration

The .gitignore is configured to ignore all files in wp-content/ except for:

• wp-content/object-cache.php
• wp-content/mu-plugins/autoload.php

To un-ignore a file inside a subdirectory, you must first un-ignore the parent directory, then re-ignore its contents, then un-ignore the specific file:

# Ignore everything in wp-content
wp-content/*

# Un-ignore a file directly in wp-content
!wp-content/object-cache.php

# Un-ignore a file in a subdirectory
!wp-content/mu-plugins/
wp-content/mu-plugins/*
!wp-content/mu-plugins/autoload.php