Moodledocker development environment

This is the current docker-based development environment.

It allows

• easy provisioning of new development instances (simple commands to create a docker-compose configuration for a given Moodle Git repository
• data separation between instances (no one can accidentally conflict with / overwrite another)
• selective starting and stopping of development instances (esp.: memory of my development machine is not polluted with an always-running postgres server)
• prevention of clashing namespaces

Installation

1. Create a dedicated folder that will contain all instances. Mine is located at ~/Moodledocker.
2. Within that folder, clone this repository into a folder called Metafiles: git clone https://github.com/learnweb/moodledocker.git Metafiles.
3. Create a symbolic link to Moodledocker/Scripts/moodledocker, e.g. ln -s ~/Moodledocker/Metafiles/Scripts/moodledocker ~/bin/moodledocker.
4. Also, clone a customised nginx-proxy that will manage redirection to the correct instance: git clone https://github.com/learnweb/moodledocker-nginx-proxy.git.
5. Enter nginx-proxy and build the image: docker build -t jwilder/nginx-proxy ..

First use

1. Check out a Moodle git respository somewhere (NOT below ~/Moodledocker!).
2. Choose a name NAME that you recognise. Navigate into the repository and enter moodledocker createhere NAME. That command will create the necessary files and folder structure. It will also create a config.php for you, if you like (on first start, you should!).
3. Start the instance by invoking moodledocker control NAME up. If the nginx proxy server is not running yet, the output will tell you how to start it.

(Optionally, you might want to use sudo docker container exec -it _containerName_ /bin/bash (where containerName can be found with docker ps) to have a normal shell for the container.)

Optional configuration

Sending emails

The PHP containers provide an msmtp installation. It assumes that an MTA is installed and configured on the Docker host.

You can very easily view outgoing emails without actually sending them, by using mailhog:

docker run -d -p 25:25 -p 8025:8025 -e MH_SMTP_BIND_ADDR=0.0.0.0:25 --name mailhog mailhog/mailhog

Otherwise, on Ubuntu, take e.g. postfix. Some useful hints for configuration on Ubuntu:

• Installation: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-postfix-as-a-send-only-smtp-server-on-ubuntu-16-04 (you can use dpkg-reconfigure postfix to get to the configuration screen after installing postfix. This generates the main.cf that you'll need in the following.
• Permit connections from Docker containers: http://satishgandham.com/2016/12/sending-email-from-docker-through-postfix-installed-on-the-host/
• Configuring Postfix to relay email via GMAIL: https://leehblue.com/configure-postfix-send-email-through-gmail/