devilbox/docs/configuration-files/env-file.rst

.env file

All docker-compose configuration is done inside the .env file which simply defines key-value variables parsed to docker-compose.yml.

Note

what is the .env file?

Note

Use your browsers search function to quickly find the desired variable name.

Important

Any change of .env requires a restart of the Devilbox.

Table of Contents

local

Core settings

DEBUG_COMPOSE_ENTRYPOINT

This variable controls the docker-compose log verbosity during service startup. When set to 1 verbose output as well as executed commands are shown. When set to 0 only warnings and errors are shown.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
DEBUG_COMPOSE_ENTRYPOINT	0 or 1	1

DEVILBOX_PATH

This specifies a relative or absolute path to the Devilbox git directory and will be used as a prefix for all Docker mount paths.

• Relative path: relative to the devilbox git directory (Must start with .)
• Absolute path: Full path (Must start with /)

The only reason you would ever want change this variable is when you are on MacOS and relocate your project files onto an NFS volume due to performance issues.

Warning

remove_stopped_container Whenever you change this value you have to stop the Devilbox and also remove the stopped container via docker-compose rm.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
DEVILBOX_PATH	valid path	.

LOCAL_LISTEN_ADDR

This variable specifies you host computers listening IP address for exposed container ports. If you leave this variable empty, all exposed ports will be bound to all network interfaces on your host operating system, which is also the default behaviour. If you only want the exposed container ports to be bound to a specific IP address (such as 127.0.0.1), you can add this IP address here, but note, in this case you must add a trailing colon (:).

Name	Allowed values	Default value
LOCAL_LISTEN_ADDR	IP address	empty

Examples:

Value	Meaning
127.0.0.1:	only expose ports on your host os on 127.0.0.1. Note the trailing :
192.168.0.1:	only expose ports on your host os on 192.168.0.1. Note the trailing :
0.0.0.0:	listen on all host computer interfaces / IP addresses
	listen on all host computer interfaces / IP addresses

Note

When using Docker Toolbox, you must leave this variable empty, in order to have the exposed ports available on the external interface of the virtual machine.

TLD_SUFFIX

This variable controls all of your projects domain suffix.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
TLD_SUFFIX	alpha-num string	loc

Your project domains are built together out of the project directory name and the TLD_SUFFIX. The formula is like this: http://<project-dir>.<TLD_SUFFIX>.

You can even use official tld's and have your nameserver point to an internal LAN id, to make this project visible to everyone in your corporate LAN.

How does it look?

Project dir	TLD_SUFFIX	Project URL
my-test	loc	http://my-test.loc
example	loc	http://example.loc
www.test	loc	http://www.test.loc
my-test	local	http://my-test.local
example	local	http://example.local
www.test	local	http://www.test.local
my-test	net	http://my-test.net
example	com	http://example.com
www.test	org	http://www.test.org

Warning

Do not use dev as a domain suffix (I know, it's tempting). It has been registered by Google and they advertise the HSTS header which makes your browser redirect every http request to https.

See also: This blog post

Warning

Do not use localhost as a domain suffix. There is an RFC draft to make sure all localhost requests, including their sub domains should be redirected to the systems loopback interface. Docker has already released a commit preventing the use of localhost on MacOS.

See also: RFC Draft and Docker Release notes

NEW_UID

This setting controls one of the core concepts of the Devilbox. It overcomes the problem of syncronizing file and directory permissions between the Docker container and your host operating system.

You should set this value to the user id of your host operating systems user you actually work with. How do you find out your user id?

host> id -u
1000

In most cases (on Linux and MacOS), this will be 1000 if you are the first and only user on your system, however it could also be a different value.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
NEW_UID	valid uid	1000

The Devilbox own containers will then pick up this value during startup and change their internal user id to the one specified. Services like PHP-FPM, Apache and Nginx will then do read and write operation of files with this uid, so all files mounted will have permissions as your local user and you do not have to fix permissions afterwards.

syncronize_container_permissions Read up more on the general problem of trying to have syncronized permissions between the host system and a running Docker container.

NEW_GID

This is the equivalent to user id for groups and addresses the same concept. See env_new_uid.

How do you find out your group id?

host> id -g
1000

In most cases (on Linux and MacOS), this will be 1000 if you are the first and only user on your system, however it could also be a different value.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
NEW_GID	valid gid	1000

syncronize_container_permissions Read up more on the general problem of trying to have syncronized permissions between the host system and a running Docker container.

TIMEZONE

This variable controls the system as well as service timezone for the Devilbox's own containers. This is especially useful to keep PHP and database timezones in sync.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
TIMEZONE	valid timezone	Europe/Berlin

Have a look at Wikipedia to get a list of valid timezones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

Note

It is always a good practice not to assume a specific timezone anyway and store all values in UTC (such as time types in MySQL).

Intranet settings

DNS_CHECK_TIMEOUT

The Devilbox intranet validates if every project has a corresponding DNS record (either an official DNS record, one that came from its own Auto-DNS or an /etc/hosts entry). By doing so it queries the DNS record based on <project-dir>.<TLD_SUFFIX>. In case it does not exist, the query itself might take a while and the intranet page will be unresponsive during that time. In order to avoid long waiting times, you can set the DNS query time-out in seconds after which the query should stop and report as unsuccessful. The default is 1 second, wich should be fairly sane for all use-cases.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
DNS_CHECK_TIMEOUT	integers	1

DEVILBOX_UI_PROTECT

By setting this variable to 1, the Devilbox intranet will be password protected. This might be useful, if you share your running Devilbox instance accross a LAN, but do not want everybody to have access to the intranet itself, just to the projects you actually provide.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
DEVILBOX_UI_PROTECT	0 or 1	0

Note

Also pay attention to the next env var, which will control the password for the login: DEVILBOX_UI_PASSWORD.

DEVILBOX_UI_PASSWORD

When the devilbox intranet is password-protected via DEVILBOX_UI_PROTECT, this is the actual password by which it will be protected.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
DEVILBOX_UI_PASSWORD	any string	password

DEVILBOX_UI_DISABLE

In case you want to completely disable the Devilbox intranet, such as when running it on production, you need to set this variable to 1.

By disabling the intranet, the webserver will simply remove the default virtual host and redirect all IP-based requests to the first available virtual host, which will be you first project when ordering their names alphabetically.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
DEVILBOX_UI_DISABLE	0 or 1	0

Docker image versions

The following settings reflect one of the main goals of the Devilbox: being able to run any combination of all container versions.

Note

Any change for those settings requires a restart of the devilbox.

PHP_SERVER

This variable choses your desired PHP-FPM version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
PHP_SERVER	php-fpm-5.4 php-fpm-5.5 php-fpm-5.6 php-fpm-7.0 php-fpm-7.1 php-fpm-7.2	php-fpm-7.1

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep PHP_SERVER .env

#PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-5.4
#PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-5.5
#PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-5.6
#PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-7.0
PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-7.1
#PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-7.2
#PHP_SERVER=php-fpm-7.3
#PHP_SERVER=hhvm-latest

HTTPD_SERVER

This variable choses your desired web server version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HTTPD_SERVER	apache-2.2 apache-2.4 nginx-stable nginx-mainline	nginx-stable

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep HTTPD_SERVER .env

#HTTPD_SERVER=apache-2.2
#HTTPD_SERVER=apache-2.4
HTTPD_SERVER=nginx-stable
#HTTPD_SERVER=nginx-mainline

MYSQL_SERVER

This variable choses your desired MySQL server version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
MYSQL_SERVER	mysql-5.5 mysql-5.6 mariadb-10.2 percona-5.7 and many more	mariadb-10.1

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep MYSQL_SERVER .env

#MYSQL_SERVER=mysql-5.5
#MYSQL_SERVER=mysql-5.6
#MYSQL_SERVER=mysql-5.7
#MYSQL_SERVER=mysql-8.0
#MYSQL_SERVER=mariadb-5.5
#MYSQL_SERVER=mariadb-10.0
MYSQL_SERVER=mariadb-10.1
#MYSQL_SERVER=mariadb-10.2
#MYSQL_SERVER=mariadb-10.3
#MYSQL_SERVER=percona-5.5
#MYSQL_SERVER=percona-5.6
#MYSQL_SERVER=percona-5.7

PGSQL_SERVER

This variable choses your desired PostgreSQL server version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
PGSQL_SERVER	9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 and many more	9.6

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep PGSQL_SERVER .env

#PGSQL_SERVER=9.1
#PGSQL_SERVER=9.2
#PGSQL_SERVER=9.3
#PGSQL_SERVER=9.4
#PGSQL_SERVER=9.5
PGSQL_SERVER=9.6
#PGSQL_SERVER=10.0

Note

This is the official PostgreSQL server which might already have other tags available, check their official website for even more versions. https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres/

REDIS_SERVER

This variable choses your desired Redis server version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
REDIS_SERVER	2.8 3.0 3.2 4.0 and many more	4.0

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep REDIS_SERVER .env

#REDIS_SERVER=2.8
#REDIS_SERVER=3.0
#REDIS_SERVER=3.2
REDIS_SERVER=4.0

Note

This is the official Redis server which might already have other tags available, check their official website for even more versions. https://hub.docker.com/_/redis/

MEMCD_SERVER

This variable choses your desired Memcached server version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
MEMCD_SERVER	1.4.21 1.4.22 1.4.23 1.4.24 and many more	1.5.2

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep MEMCD_SERVER .env

#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.21
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.22
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.23
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.24
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.25
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.26
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.27
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.28
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.29
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.30
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.31
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.32
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.33
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.34
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.35
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.36
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.37
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.38
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.4.39
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.5.0
#MEMCD_SERVER=1.5.1
MEMCD_SERVER=1.5.2
#MEMCD_SERVER=latest

Note

This is the official Memcached server which might already have other tags available, check their official website for even more versions. https://hub.docker.com/_/memcached/

MONGO_SERVER

This variable choses your desired MongoDB server version to be started.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
MONGO_SERVER	2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 and many more	3.4

All values are already available in the .env file and just need to be commented or uncommented. If multiple values are uncommented, the last uncommented variable one takes precedences:

host> grep MONGO_SERVER .env

#MONGO_SERVER=2.8
#MONGO_SERVER=3.0
#MONGO_SERVER=3.2
MONGO_SERVER=3.4
#MONGO_SERVER=3.5

Note

This is the official MongoDB server which might already have other tags available, check their official website for even more versions. https://hub.docker.com/_/mongo/

Docker host mounts

The Docker host mounts are directory paths on your host operating system that will be mounted into the running Docker container. This makes data persistent accross restarts and let them be available on both sides: Your host operating system as well as inside the container.

This also gives you the choice to edit data on your host operating system, such as with your favourite IDE/editor and also inside the container, by using the bundled tools, such as downloading libraries with composer and others.

Being able to do that on both sides, removes the need to install any development tools (except your IDE/editor) on your host and have everything fully encapsulated into the containers itself.

HOST_PATH_HTTPD_DATADIR

This is an absolute or relative path (relative to Devilbox git directory) to your data directory.

getting_started_directory_overview_datadir

By default, all of your websites/projects will be stored in that directory. If however you want to separate your data from the Devilbox git directory, do change the path to a place where you want to store all of your projects on your host computer.

• Relative path: relative to the devilbox git directory (Must start with .)
• Absolute path: Full path (Must start with /)

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PATH_HTTPD_DATADIR	valid path	./data/www

Example

If you want to move all your projects to /home/myuser/workspace/web/ for example, just set it like this:

HOST_PATH_HTTPD_DATADIR=/home/myuser/workspace/web

Mapping

No matter what path you assign, inside the PHP and the web server container your data dir will always be /shared/httpd/.

Warning

Do not create any symlinks inside your project directories that go outside the data dir. Anything which is outside this directory is not mounted into the container.

Warning

remove_stopped_container Whenever you change this value you have to stop the Devilbox and also remove the stopped container via docker-compose rm.

HOST_PATH_MYSQL_DATADIR

This is an absolute or relative path (relative to Devilbox git directory) to your MySQL data directory.

• Relative path: relative to the devilbox git directory (Must start with .)
• Absolute path: Full path (Must start with /)

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PATH_MYSQL_DATADIR	valid path	./data/mysql

Each MySQL, MariaDB or PerconaDB version will have its own subdirectory, so when first running MySQL 5.5 and then starting MySQL 5.6, you will have a different database with different data.

Having each version separated from each other makes sure that you don't accidently upgrade from a lower to a higher version which might not be reversable. (MySQL auto-upgrade certain older data files to newer, but this process does not necessarily work the other way round and could result in failues).

The directory structure will look something like this:

host> ls -l ./data/mysql/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mariadb-10.0/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mariadb-10.1/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mariadb-10.2/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mariadb-10.3/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mysql-5.5/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mysql-5.6/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mysql-5.7/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 mysql-8.0/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 percona-5.5/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 percona-5.6/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 percona-5.7/

Warning

remove_stopped_container Whenever you change this value you have to stop the Devilbox and also remove the stopped container via docker-compose rm.

HOST_PATH_PGSQL_DATADIR

This is an absolute or relative path (relative to Devilbox git directory) to your PostgreSQL data directory.

• Relative path: relative to the devilbox git directory (Must start with .)
• Absolute path: Full path (Must start with /)

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PATH_PGSQL_DATADIR	valid path	./data/pgsql

Each PostgreSQL version will have its own subdirectory, so when first running PostgreSQL 9.1 and then starting PostgreSQL 10.0, you will have a different database with different data.

Having each version separated from each other makes sure that you don't accidently upgrade from a lower to a higher version which might not be reversable.

The directory structure will look something like this:

host> ls -l ./data/pgsql/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 9.1/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 9.2/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 9.3/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 9.4/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 9.5/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 9.6/

Warning

remove_stopped_container Whenever you change this value you have to stop the Devilbox and also remove the stopped container via docker-compose rm.

HOST_PATH_MONGO_DATADIR

This is an absolute or relative path (relative to Devilbox git directory) to your MongoDB data directory.

• Relative path: relative to the devilbox git directory (Must start with .)
• Absolute path: Full path (Must start with /)

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PATH_MONGO_DATADIR	valid path	./data/mongo

Each MongoDB version will have its own subdirectory, so when first running MongoDB 2.8 and then starting MongoDB 3.5, you will have a different database with different data.

Having each version separated from each other makes sure that you don't accidently upgrade from a lower to a higher version which might not be reversable.

The directory structure will look something like this:

host> ls -l ./data/mongo/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 2.8/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 3.0/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 3.2/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 3.4/
drwxrwxr-x 6 48 48 4096 Jun 21 08:47 3.5/

Warning

remove_stopped_container Whenever you change this value you have to stop the Devilbox and also remove the stopped container via docker-compose rm.

Docker host ports

All describned host ports below are ports that the Docker container expose on your host operating system. By default each port will be exposed to all interfaces or IP addresses of the host operating system. This can be controlled with env_local_listen_addr.

How to list used ports on Linux and MacOS

Open a terminal and type the following:

host> netstat -an | grep 'LISTEN\s'
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:53585    0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:37715    0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:58555    0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:48573    0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:34591    0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8000     0.0.0.0:*     LISTEN

How to list used ports on Windows

Open the command prompt and type the following:

C:\WINDOWS\system32> netstat -an
Proto  Local Address       Foreign Address      State
TCP    0.0.0.0:80          0.0.0.0:0            LISTENING
TCP    0.0.0.0:145         0.0.0.0:0            LISTENING
TCP    0.0.0.0:445         0.0.0.0:0            LISTENING
TCP    0.0.0.0:1875        0.0.0.0:0            LISTENING

Warning

docker_toolbox When using Docker Toobox ensure that ports are exposed to all interfaces. See env_local_listen_addr

Warning

Before setting the ports, ensure that they are not already in use on your host operating system by other services.

HOST_PORT_HTTPD

The port to expose for the web server (Apache or Nginx). This is usually 80. Set it to something else if 80 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_HTTPD	1 - 65535	80

HOST_PORT_MYSQL

The port to expose for the MySQL server (MySQL, MariaDB or PerconaDB). This is usually 3306. Set it to something else if 3306 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_MYSQL	1 - 65535	3306

HOST_PORT_PGSQL

The port to expose for the PostgreSQL server. This is usually 5432. Set it to something else if 5432 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_PGSQL	1 - 65535	5432

HOST_PORT_REDIS

The port to expose for the Redis server. This is usually 6379. Set it to something else if 6379 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_REDIS	1 - 65535	5432

HOST_PORT_MEMCD

The port to expose for the Memcached server. This is usually 11211. Set it to something else if 11211 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_MEMCD	1 - 65535	11211

HOST_PORT_MONGO

The port to expose for the MongoDB server. This is usually 27017. Set it to something else if 27017 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_MONGO	1 - 65535	27017

HOST_PORT_BIND

The port to expose for the BIND DNS server. This is usually 53. Set it to something else if 53 is already in use on your host operating system.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HOST_PORT_BIND	1 - 65535	1053

Warning

As you might have noticed, BIND is not set to its default port 53 by default, but rather to 1053. This is because some operating system already have a local DNS resolver running on port 53 which would result in a failure when this BIND server is starting.

You only need to set BIND to port 53 when you want to use the Auto-DNS feautre of the Devilbox. When doing so, read this article with care: tutorial_enable_auto_dns.

Container settings

PHP

Custom variables

The PHP container itself does not offer any variables, however you can add any key-value pair variable into the .env file which will automatically be available to the started PHP container and thus in any of your PHP projects.

If your application requires are variable to determine if it is run under development or production, for example: APPLICATION_ENV, you can just add this to the .env file:

host> grep APPLICATION_ENV .env

APPLICATION_ENV=development

Within your php application/file you can then access this variable via the getenv function:

<?php
// Example use of getenv()
echo getenv('APPLICATION_ENV');
?>

This will then output development.

Note

Add as many custom environment variables as you require.

Web server

HTTPD_DOCROOT_DIR

This variable specifies the name of a directory within each of your project directories from which the web server will serve the files.

Together with the env_httpd_datadir and your project directory, the HTTPD_DOCROOT_DIR will built up the final location of a virtual hosts document root.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HTTPD_DOCROOT_DIR	valid dir name	htdocs

Example 1

• devilbox git directory location: /home/user-1/repo/devilbox
• HOST_PATH_HTTPD_DATADIR: ./data/www (relative)
• Project directory: my-first-project
• HTTPD_DOCROOT_DIR: htdocs

The location from where the web server will serve files for my-first-project is then: /home/user-1/repo/devilbox/data/www/my-first-project/htdocs

Example 2

• devilbox git directory location: /home/user-1/repo/devilbox
• HOST_PATH_HTTPD_DATADIR: /home/user-1/www (absolute)
• Project directory: my-first-project
• HTTPD_DOCROOT_DIR: htdocs

The location from where the web server will serve files for my-first-project is then: /home/user-1/www/my-first-project/htdocs

Directory structure: default

Let's have a look how the directory is actually built up:

# Project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 htdocs/

# htdocs directory inside your project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/htdocs
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 cytopia cytopia 87 Mar 12 23:05 index.php

By calling your proect url, the index.php file will be served.

Directory structure: nested symlink

Most of the time you would clone or otherwise download a PHP framework, which in most cases has its own www directory somewhere nested. How can this be linked to the htdocs directory?

Let's have a look how the directory is actually built up:

# Project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 cakephp/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cytopia cytopia   15 Mar 17 09:36 htdocs -> cakephp/webroot/

# htdocs directory inside your project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/htdocs
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 cytopia cytopia 87 Mar 12 23:05 index.php

As you can see, the web server is still able to server the files from the htdocs location, this time however, htdocs itself is a symlink pointing to a much deeper and nested location inside an actual framework directory.

HTTPD_TEMPLATE_DIR

This variable specifies the directory name (which is just in your project directory, next to the HTTPD_DOCROOT_DIR directory) in which you can hold custom web server configuration files.

Every virtual host (which represents a project) can be fully customized to its own needs, independently of other virtual hosts.

This directory does not exist by default and you need to create it. Additionally you will also have to populate it with one of three yaml-based template files.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
HTTPD_TEMPLATE_DIR	valid dir name	.devilbox

Let's have a look at an imaginary project directory called my-first-project:

# Project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 htdocs/

Inside this your project directory you will need to create another directory which is called .devilbox by default. If you change the HTTPD_TEMPLATE_DIR variable to something else, you will have to create a directory by whatever name you chose for that variable.

# Project directory
host> cd data/www/my-first-project/
host> mkdir .devilbox
host> ls -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 .devilbox/
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 htdocs/

Now you need to copy the vhost-gen templates into the .devilbox directory. The templates are available in the Devilbox git directory under templates/vhost-gen/.

By copying those files into your project template directory, nothing will change, these are the default templates that will create the virtual host exactly the same way as if they were not present.

# Navigate into the devilbox directory
host> cd path/to/devilbox

# Copy templates to your project directory
host> cp templates/vhost-gen/* data/www/my-first-project/.devilbox/

Let's have a look how the directory is actually built up:

# Project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 .devilbox/
drwxr-xr-x 2 cytopia cytopia 4096 Mar 12 23:05 htdocs/

# template directory inside your project directory
host> ls -l data/www/my-first-project/htdocs/.devilbox
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 cytopia cytopia 87 Mar 12 23:05 apache22.yml
-rw-r--r-- 1 cytopia cytopia 87 Mar 12 23:05 apache24.yml
-rw-r--r-- 1 cytopia cytopia 87 Mar 12 23:05 nginx.yml

The three files apache22.yml, apache24.yml and nginx.yml let you customize your web servers virtual host to anything from adding rewrite rules, overwriting directory index to even changing the server name or adding locations to other assets.

The whole process is based on a project called vhost-gen. A virtual host generator for Apache 2.2, Apache 2.4 and any Nginx version.

Customize your virtual host When you want to find out more how to actually customize each virtual host to its own need, read up more on custom_vhost. Tutorials Also have a look at this tutorial which is a walk-through showing you how to modify a virtual host and make it serve all files for multiple sub domains (server names): tutorial_adding_sub_domains

MySQL

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD

If you start a MySQL container for the first time, it will setup MySQL itself with this specified password. If you do change the root password to something else, make sure to also set it accordingly in .env, otherwise the devilbox will not be able to connect to MySQL and will not be able to display information inside the bundled intranet.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD	any string	empty (no password)

Warning

Keep this variable in sync with the actual MySQL root password.

MYSQL_GENERAL_LOG

This variable controls the logging behaviour of the MySQL server (MySQL, MariaDB and PerconaDB). As the Devilbox is intended to be used for development, this feature is turned on by default.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
MYSQL_GENERAL_LOG	0 or 1	1

MySQL documentation:

"The general query log is a general record of what mysqld is doing. The server writes information to this log when clients connect or disconnect, and it logs each SQL statement received from clients. The general query log can be very useful when you suspect an error in a client and want to know exactly what the client sent to mysqld."

-- https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/query-log.html

PostgreSQL

PGSQL_ROOT_USER

If you start a PostgreSQL container for the first time, it will setup PostgreSQL itself with a specified username and password. If you do change the root username or password to something else, make sure to also set it accordingly in .env, otherwise the devilbox will not be able to connect to PostgreSQL and will not be able to display information inside the bundled intranet.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
PGSQL_ROOT_USER	alphabetical string	postgres

Warning

Keep this variable in sync with the actual PostgreSQL username.

PGSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD

If you start a PostgreSQL container for the first time, it will setup PostgreSQL itself with a specified username and password. If you do change the root username or password to something else, make sure to also set it accordingly in .env, otherwise the devilbox will not be able to connect to PostgreSQL and will not be able to display information inside the bundled intranet.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
PGSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD	any string	empty (no password)

Warning

Keep this variable in sync with the actual PostgreSQL password.

Bind

BIND_DNS_RESOLVER

This variable holds a comma separated list of IP addresses of DNS servers. By default using Google's DNS server as they are pretty fast.

Name	Allowed values	Default value
BIND_DNS_RESOLVER	comma separated list of IP addresses	8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4

The devilbox is using its own DNS server internally (your host computer can also use it for Auto-DNS) in order to resolve custom project domains defined by TLD_SUFFIX. To also be able to reach the internet from within the Container there must be some kind of upstream DNS server to ask for queries.

Note

If you don't trust the Google DNS server, then set it to something else. If you already have a DNS server inside your LAN and also want your custom DNS (if any) to be available inside the containers, set the value to its IP address.