That makes it possible to work from the Docker host, by for example editing your files with your favorite editor/IDE and to run any commands, such as `npm`, `composer` or others inside the PHP container with the correct PHP version.
If you do not need to run any command line tools manually (composer, node, etc), it is sufficient to stay on the host. All you need is a browser and an editor/IDE.
**Note:** If you want to do some command-line PHP tasks and you have PHP installed on your host, make sure it is the same version as your currently started PHP Docker container. If not, just enter the PHP Docker and do the tasks there.
However, instead of having to type all of the above for a simple command execution, you might be better off to simply enter the PHP container and work on a normal shell. Going into the container is as simple as this:
If you need to run some command line tasks manually such as `drush`, `composer` or anything similar which is not available on your host computer, you can do that inside the PHP container, which comes with lots of useful pre-install tools.
The situation inside the container is not different from on the Docker host. All services and port bindings are available there as well on `127.0.0.1`. Read up on [Technical](Technical.md) to find out more about the syncronization of both.
In the devilbox git directory you will find a bash script called `shell.sh`. Just execute this script and it will take you directly into the PHP docker container at the project root directory.
In case you need to perform some tasks that are only possible with root rights (such as installing or updating software), you can do so via password-less `sudo`.
**Note:** Performing installations and updates are only temporary for the current session. Any change will be lost at the next start/restart of the devilbox. If you permanently require additional software refer to [Hacking](Hacking.md).
For your convenience a few selected tools have been pre-installed in their current version that you can use for your daily development tasks. Some of them are:
Your projects will be available by the same URL as they are available from your docker host computer. There is no need to edit the PHP container's `/etc/hosts` file, as it is automatically provide via the DNS container `bind`.
Creating new projects is really simple and just involves a few steps.
1. Create a new **project folder** for your VirtualHost
2. Create a subfolder named **htdocs/** for the DocumentRoot
2. Create a **DNS record** pointing to your VirtualHost (via `/etc/hosts`)
The **project folder** will be the name of your VirtualHost. The **htdocs/** folder holds all files that will be server by the VirtualHost (called DocumentRoot). The **DNS record** will be the domain name that points to the webserver's IP address (127.0.0.1).
Your project folder is determined by the value of `HOST_PATH_TO_HTTPD_DATADIR` which can be set in `.env`. The default is `./data/www`.
| Location | Project directory |
|--------------|-------------------|
| Host system | `HOST_PATH_TO_HTTPD_DATADIR` (default: `./data/www`) |
| PHP Docker | `/shared/httpd` |
| HTTPD Docker | `/shared/httpd` |
**What directory structure is required to serve a new project?**
1. Each folder inside your project directory is an independent VirtualHost.
2. Each VirtualHost folder requires the `htdocs/` folder which is the DocumentRoot.
In order to make the following examples easier let's work with some assumed default values. The first one represents the project base directory and the second one is for the project domains.
The VirtualHost directory make a new VirtualHost available under the specified URL. However the actual files that will be served are always expected to be in a subfolder called `htdocs/`. By having an additional sub-directory for the Document root you are able to store non-www files inside the project folder and even **symlink** you www dir to htdocs.
This is a general overview about creating projects. If you want to see some real examples how to setup **Wordpress**, **Drupal**, **CakePHP**, **Yii**, **Symfony** and others, visit the [Example Section](Examples.md).
If you prefer to work directly inside the PHP Docker container, you can do the same. The following will create a VirtualHost for `http://project1.loc`.
Instead of creating a **htdocs/** folder explicitly, you can also make a symlink by the same name. This is required as some frameworks have nested www folders.
Keep the actual versioned wordpress name and symlink it to htdocs.
```shell
$ ls -l
drwxrwxr-x 2 cytopia 4096 Jun 14 08:29 wordpress-4.8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cytopia 11 Jun 14 08:29 htdocs -> wordpress-4.8/
```
CakePHP serves its files from a nested folder, a symlink is required here.
```shell
$ ls -l
drwxrwxr-x 2 cytopia 4096 Jun 14 08:29 cakephp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cytopia 11 Jun 14 08:29 htdocs -> cakephp/app/webroot/
In order to actually visit the newly created project in your browser, there must be a DNS entry pointing to the webserver's listening IP address. This can either be done automatically by a DNS server or you can do it manually for each project by editing your `/etc/hosts` file every time you create a new project.
When using the devilbox built-in DNS server, there is nothing to do. DNS catch-all records for your `TLD_SUFFIX` exist and will always point to `127.0.0.1`. See [Configure](Configure.md) for how to setup Auto-DNS.
Being able to combine all kinds of different container version is one of the main goals of the devilbox. Changing the versions is kept simple and consistent for all container.
1. Open the `.env` file in your favorite editor
2. Find the `*_SERVER=` block for the container to change the version
3. Comment all lines you do not want to activate
4. Uncomment the one line you want to use.
5. Restart the devilbox for the changes to take effect
<sub>Be aware that if multiple lines are uncommented, the last one takes effect.</sub>
You can choose between Apache and Nginx in different version. All of them are configured to work the same, there is nothing to worry about when changing them.
You can choose between different PHP versions and HHVM.
**Important:** Keep in mind that if you have a custom php.ini config at `./cfg/php-*/`, it is only effective for one version. Custom php configurations are separted per version.
2. Find the `MYSQL_SERVER=` or `PGSQL_SERVER=` block
**Important:** Each version has a different data directory. This is a security precautions. Imagine you startup MySQL 5.5 for the first time. New databases will be created. Now you startup MySQL 8. All existing databases would be upgraded to work flawlessly with MySQL 8, however this is not downwards compatible. So by startup up MySQL 5.5 again, it would say the database is corrupt.
All your projects can send emails to whatever recipient. You do not have to worry that they will actually being sent. Each PHP container runs a local postfix mailserver that intercepts all outgoing mails and puts them all in the local devilbox user mail account.
In order to view sent emails open up the devilbox intranet http://localhost/mail.php. There you can also test email sending and verify that they really stay locally.
Log files are available on the Host system and separated per service version. See `./log/` (inside devilbox git directory). The `./log/` folder itself will contain subdirectories in the form `<service>-<version>` which will then hold all available log files.
All output printed to stdout or stderr by the started services will be available in `docker logs`. In order to view them constantly in a terminal session use:
```shell
docker-compose logs -f
```
Docker logs are currently only being used to display the initial startup including the chosen settings. All other logging is written to file and mounted to the docker host.
The vHost page shows you all available projects and any configuation errors that need to be resolved. Errors could be: missing `htdocs/` folder and incorrect DNS settings. So make sure to first visit this page if any of your vHost does not work.
If you are interested in doing database backups, either use phpMyAdmin or Adminer. You can however also use the PHP container itself. Read more about this on [Backups](Backups.md)
