WordPress Local Development Environment with Docker

Quick setup for local WordPress development (plugins and themes) using Docker. Works with VSCode Remote - Containers.

1. Create a docker-compose.yml file with the following content in your project directory:

services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:latest
    container_name: wp_dev_db
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: wp_dev_root
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wp_dev # Database name
      MYSQL_USER: wp_dev_user # Database user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: wp_dev_pass # Database password
    volumes:
      - ./db_data:/var/lib/mysql

  wordpress:
    image: wordpress:latest
    container_name: wp_dev_app
    restart: always
    user: "1000:1000" # Set to match host user for proper file permissions
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db:3306
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wp_dev # Database name
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wp_dev_user # Database user
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: wp_dev_pass # Database password
      WORDPRESS_DEBUG: 1
      WORDPRESS_CONFIG_EXTRA: |
        define('WP_DEBUG', true);
        define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
        define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
    volumes:
      - ./wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content

2. Create necessary directories for persistent data:

mkdir wp-content
mkdir db_data

3. Start the Docker containers:

docker-compose up -d

Access WordPress at: http://localhost:8080

4. Continue Development

You can now add your themes and plugins to the wp-content directory. Your database data will persist in the db_data directory.

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