PHP 8.5 in Docker

The php:8-cli image

The official image php:8-cli bundles the PHP 8.5 command line with nothing else to configure. The tag has two parts: 8 pins the major version and cli picks the variant without a web server.

Pulling the image once is enough - Docker reuses it for every run below, so each example starts fast.

Run one-liners

Containers are throwaway by design: the --rm flag removes the container when the command ends while the image stays cached. Run the version check through the image with one line:

Check the PHP version inside Docker

docker run --rm php:8-cli php -v

PHP 8.5.0 (cli) (built: Nov 2026) (NTS) Copyright (c) The PHP Group

The output is the same version report you get from a local install. Any php command works this way: put it after the image name and Docker runs it inside the container.

Mount your code

Your files live on the host, so mount the project folder into the container. The -v flag maps the current folder to /app inside the container and -w makes it the working folder. With the mount in place the container sees hello.php exactly as saved on disk:

Run a local file inside the container

docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/app -w /app php:8-cli php hello.php

Hello from Docker.

Serve a page

The built-in server works from a container too. Publish port 8000 so the browser on the host can reach it, keep the folder mount from the previous step, and start the server bound to all interfaces. Open port 8000 in a browser to see the project, and stop the container with Ctrl+C when done.

Serve the project from Docker

docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 -v "$PWD":/app -w /app php:8-cli php -S 0.0.0.0:8000

Document root is /app

Next: PHP course

Article author: Arthur Isaev