Deploy an FTP Server in Docker and Transfer Files with PHP FTP Client

Environment

Docker host for containerised services.

FTP server image: https://hub.docker.com/r/fauria/vsftpd

PHP application framework: ThinkPHP 5.1

PHP FTP client library: https://github.com/Nicolab/php-ftp-client

Deploy FTP service with Docker

docker run -d \
  -v e:/ftp:/home/vsftpd \
  -p 20:20 -p 21:21 \
  -p 21100-21110:21100-21110 \
  -e FTP_USER=tinywan \
  -e FTP_PASS=123456 \
  -e PASV_ADDRESS=127.0.0.1 \
  -e PASV_MIN_PORT=21100 \
  -e PASV_MAX_PORT=21110 \
  --name dnmp-vsftpd \
  --network dnmp_backend \
  --restart=always \
  fauria/vsftpd

Main parameters : --name dnmp-vsftpd – assigns a stable container name. --network dnmp_backend – connects the container to the same Docker network used by other services (required for inter‑container communication). -v e:/ftp:/home/vsftpd – bind‑mounts the host directory e:/ftp into the container at /home/vsftpd, which becomes the FTP root. -p 20:20 -p 21:21 – exposes the control ports. -p 21100-21110:21100-21110 – forwards a passive‑mode port range.

Environment variables FTP_USER, FTP_PASS, PASV_ADDRESS, PASV_MIN_PORT, PASV_MAX_PORT configure the default account and passive mode.

Verify the container

docker ps

The output lists the container ID, image name, command, creation time, status, and port mappings (e.g., 0.0.0.0:20-21->20-21/tcp and 0.0.0.0:21100-21110->21100-21110/tcp). If the container is listed as Up, the FTP service is running.

Install the PHP FTP client library

docker run --rm -i -t \
  -v e:/dnmp/www/tinywan.com:/app \
  composer require nicolab/php-ftp-client --ignore-platform-reqs

This command mounts the application source directory into a temporary Composer container and adds nicolab/php-ftp-client to composer.json without checking platform requirements.

Upload an entire directory

$ftp = new \FtpClient\FtpClient();
$ftp->connect('dnmp-vsftpd'); // use the Docker network name, not the host IP
$ftp->login('tinywan', '123456');
$source_directory = Env::get('root_path') . 'public/upload/ftp'; // absolute host path
$target_directory = '/'; // maps to /home/vsftpd/tinywan inside the container
$res = $ftp->putAll($source_directory, $target_directory);
var_dump($res); // true on success

Key points :

The FTP client connects to the container by its network alias dnmp-vsftpd. $source_directory must be an absolute path on the host; the bind‑mount makes those files visible to the FTP server. putAll() recursively uploads every file and sub‑directory from the local source to the remote target.

Upload a single file

$ftp = new \FtpClient\FtpClient();
$ftp->connect('dnmp-vsftpd');
$ftp->login('tinywan', '123456');
$local_file  = Env::get('root_path') . 'public/upload/ftp/tinyaiai.js';
$remote_file = 'remote_tinyaiai.js';
$res = $ftp->put($remote_file, $local_file, FTP_BINARY);
var_dump($res); // true on success

Download a file

$local_file  = Env::get('root_path') . 'public/upload/ftp/local_text.js';
$remote_file = 'test.txt';
$res = $ftp->get($local_file, $remote_file, FTP_BINARY);
var_dump($res); // true on success

These snippets demonstrate basic FTP operations (list, upload, download) using the php-ftp-client library inside a Docker‑based development environment.