🐳 Building WordPress with Docker Compose: A Complete Guide for Beginners

🌟 Introduction: Why Build WordPress with Docker Compose?

Docker Compose allows you to automate your entire WordPress infrastructure with a single line of command! ✅ 10x faster configuration than traditional installations Troubleshoot MySQL, PHP, and web server dependencies ✅ Ensure dev/test/production environment consistency ✨ Experience the essence of “container orchestration”!

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⚙️ 1. Preparation

Install the required tools

# Install Docker & Docker Compose (on Linux)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose -y
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

Prepare the #### directory structure

my-wordpress/
├── docker-compose.yml # core file for configuration
└── wp-data/ # Save WordPress files (automatically generated)

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🧩 2. Analyze the docker-compose.yml file structure

Core Components

1. MySQL Container : Database engine
2. WordPress Container : Web application
3. Volume : Permanent storage of data
4. Network : Communication between containers

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🛠 3. Example of docker-compose.yml in action

version: '3.8'

services:
  # MySQL database services.
  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql # Persistent storage of DB data.
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: my-secret-pw # 🔑 root password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      MYSQL_USER: wpuser
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: wppass
    networks:
      - wordpress_net

  # WordPress service
  wordpress:
    image: wordpress:latest
    depends_on:
      - # db # Start and run DB service
    ports:
      - "8000:80" # 🌐 Host 8000 ports → Container 80 ports
    volumes:
      - wp_data:/var/www/html # store website files
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wpuser
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: wppass
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wordpress
    NETWORKS:
      - wordpress_net

# Define volumes (data persistence)
volumes:
  db_data: # MySQL data
  wp_data: # WordPress installation files

# Custom networks
networks:
  wordpress_net:
    # driver: bridge

🔍 Core settings commentary

• depends_on: ensures that the DB container is run first
• environment : Container environment variables (security caution!)
• volumes : Store data on host server → keep when recreating container
• ports : hostport:containerport mapping

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🚀 4. Running & Operating Commands

Launch ####

docker-compose up -d # Run in the background

• Connection address: http://서버IP:8000

Check the status of ####

docker-compose ps # check service status

       Name Command State Ports
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mywordpress_db_1 docker-entrypoint.sh mysqld Up 3306/tcp
mywordpress_wordpress docker-entrypoint.sh apach ... Up 0.0.0.0:8000->80/tcp

Stop and delete

docker-compose down # Stop a container
docker-compose down -v # 🔥 Delete completely down to the volume (Caution!)
```bash

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### 🧪 5. Advanced setup tips
#### 1. Increase password security
After creating the `.env` file:
```env
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=SuperSecret123!
WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=StrongPass456@

Referenced in docker-compose.yml:

environment:
  mysql_root_password: ${mysql_root_password}

2. Customize your WordPress settings

wordpress:
  environment:
    wordpress_config_extra: |
      define('WP_DEBUG', true);
      define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');

3. Add Nginx reverse proxy

services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    depends_on:
      - wordpress

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🛡️ 6. Troubleshooting Guide

💡 How to deal with common issues

1. **Port Conflict ERROR: Port 8000 is already in use → Change the value of ports: to "8080:80"

2. Unable to create directory 'wp-content/uploads' → Run chmod -R 777 wp-data/ on your host

3. **DB connection failure Error establishing a database connection → Restart the DB with docker-compose restart db

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🎯 Wrapping it up: summarizing the benefits of Docker Compose

• 🚀 Build a production-grade WordPress in 5 minutes.
• 🔄 Easy to version control – Codify your infrastructure with a docker-compose.yml file
• 📦 Solve dependency issues – Ensure the same behavior in all environments
• 🆓 Free and open source – Leverage enterprise-grade technology at no extra cost

> 💬 Final advice: > > Make sure to save your docker-compose.yml file in version control (Git)! > > You can rebuild it at any time with a single docker-compose up -d.

# Final execution sequence
mkdir my-wp && cd my-wp
nano docker-compose.yml # Copy the contents of the above example
docker-compose up -d # World's fastest WordPress installation!

Now open http://localhost:8000 in your browser and complete the installation! 🎉 D