Add PHP extension on initial container startup possible?

[Commifreak]

Hey,

thanks for your solutions!

I have an application that needs soap, so I ran phpaddmod via console, which worked. However, is there any way to tell the container to install a php-mod, if its not already installed? soap is not shipped by default and I dont want to create a new image just for that one extension. A ENV option for that would be awesome, I think?

Thanks!

[shinsenter]

@Commifreak

Hi there! I understand your project needs the SOAP extension, which unfortunately isn't available by default.

At the moment, there's no way to install the extension automatically without rebuilding the Docker image.

That said, I wouldn't really recommend doing so, as it could slow down your deployments, affect CI/CD processes or health checks, and might even lead to unnecessary costs for container services.

[shinsenter]

@Commifreak

However, the Docker images I provide include a mechanism called “hooks”, which isn't documented.

You can mount a script file to install SOAP at the path /etc/hooks/onboot/, for example: /etc/hooks/onboot/install-soap.

I hope this mechanism can be helpful in your case.

[Commifreak]

Would be a /startup/ script sufficient as well?

[shinsenter]

The two mechanisms are slightly different:
Autorun scripts run after the project has been initialized and can be disabled via an environment variable,
while the onboot hooks run immediately when the container starts.

[shinsenter]

In any case, depending on the situation, using /startup/ might be a better choice since it's documented and can be controlled via environment variables.

[Commifreak]

If the /startup/ solution runs before PHP starts, it should be sufficient. I have to restart fpm if it installs the mod AFTER starting fpm. If it installs it before starting fpm, then it should do the trick. I'll test it.

[shinsenter]

Yes, scripts placed in /startup/ will run before the PHP-FPM and web server services start.

[shinsenter]

In case your project needs to run composer install and it requires the SOAP extension, I think it's better to use the hooks mechanism instead.

[Commifreak]

The /startup/ variant works for me in my case. No need for composer (is that important if I would have used composer here as well?)

10-install-soap

#!/usr/bin/env sh
echo "########## Install SOAP"
phpaddmod soap
echo "########## Install SOAP ended!"