What’s New in Docker‑PHP v4.0.0‑beta1? Deep Dive into FrankenPHP, Laravel Scripts, and QoL Boosts

Docker‑PHP v4.0.0‑beta1 Release Overview

This beta release adds substantial enhancements to the Docker‑PHP ecosystem, targeting production‑grade PHP container deployments with a focus on security, flexibility, and developer ergonomics.

FrankenPHP Image Enhancements

The core PHP runtime, FrankenPHP, now runs by default as the non‑privileged www-data user and listens on ports 8080 (HTTP) and 8443 (HTTPS), improving isolation for Kubernetes or other orchestrators. Health‑check endpoints are configurable via the $HEALTHCHECK_PATH environment variable, defaulting to /healthcheck (Caddy) but switchable to /up for Laravel. The bundled Caddyfile includes CloudFlare support, caching rules, security headers, flexible logging, and optional self‑signed certificate generation, assuming TLS termination occurs externally. Image tags follow the pattern {php-minor-version}-{variation}-{os-version} and now support Debian Trixie (13), Bookworm (12), and Alpine 3.22/3.21, giving users a choice of OS base.

Laravel Automation Script Upgrade

Laravel‑specific automation has been refactored. The default php artisan optimize command runs automatically when AUTORUN_LARAVEL_OPTIMIZE is true, preserving compatibility with the older AUTORUN_LARAVEL_ROUTE_CACHE flag. A new “migration mode” controlled by AUTORUN_LARAVEL_MIGRATION_MODE supports three strategies: default: standard forward migration ( php artisan migrate) fresh: drop all tables then migrate ( php artisan migrate:fresh) refresh: rollback and re‑run migrations ( php artisan migrate:refresh)

Additional flags let you target specific database connections (e.g., AUTORUN_LARAVEL_MIGRATION_DATABASE=mysql,pgsql ) and seed data ( AUTORUN_LARAVEL_MIGRATION_SEED=true ). Debug output can be enabled with AUTORUN_DEBUG=true for more verbose container logs.

New Environment Variables and NGINX Controls

Several PHP‑related variables allow fine‑tuning: PHP_OPCACHE_JIT=off – disables JIT by default PHP_MAX_INPUT_VARS=1000 – raises the input variable limit PHP_REALPATH_CACHE_TTL=120 – sets real‑path cache TTL

NGINX‑specific variables include: NGINX_LISTEN_IP_PROTOCOL=all (default IPv4/IPv6); set to ipv6 or ipv4 for single‑stack deployments NGINX_CLIENT_MAX_BODY_SIZE=100M – raises upload size limit

Other useful variables are PHP_FPM_PM_STATUS_PATH=/status for FPM status monitoring and AUTORUN_LARAVEL_MIGRATION_FORCE=true to force migrations.

Quality Improvements and Bug Fixes

Health‑check timing refined: start‑period 60 s, interval 3 s, timeout 3 s, retries 3, normal interval 10 s.

Entry‑point scripts now exit cleanly with exit 0, producing clearer startup logs.

File‑permission helper docker-php-serversideup-set-file-permissions now auto‑detects services and supports multiple directories via --dir.

Silent health‑check logs for fpm‑nginx and fpm‑apache variants prevent log flooding.

Session configuration deprecation warnings removed across all images.

S6‑based init script restored ( docker-serversideup-php-s6-init).

fpm‑nginx fixes: disabled absolute redirects, corrected Symfony asset SVGZ handling, and fixed Alpine permission notices.

fpm‑apache now logs Referer and User‑Agent headers. install-php-extensions updated to v2.9.11 for more stable dependency installation.

Conclusion

Although labeled beta, v4.0.0‑beta1 marks a significant step toward a production‑ready Docker‑PHP stack, offering tighter security, richer configurability, and smoother CI/CD pipelines. Users running PHP or Laravel in containers are encouraged to test the images (with backups) and provide feedback, while the project prepares for a stable v4 release targeting Kubernetes and broader cloud‑native environments.