Install Nginx PhP on Alpine

To install Nginx and PHP on Alpine Linux, you can follow these steps. This guide assumes you have a fresh Alpine Linux installation.

 

1. Update Alpine Linux:

Start by updating the package index to make sure all repositories are up to date:

apk update

 

2. Install Nginx:

Install Nginx from the Alpine repositories:

apk add nginx

Install openrc:

apk add openrc --no-cache

After installation, you can start Nginx using:

rc-service nginx start

To enable Nginx to start on boot:

rc-update add nginx

 

3. Install PHP and PHP-FPM:

Install PHP and PHP-FPM, as PHP is often used with Nginx via the FastCGI Process Manager (FPM):

apk add php php-fpm php-mysqli php-json php-opcache php-session php-ctype php-zlib php-curl php-xml php-dom

This installs PHP and some common extensions. You can install more PHP extensions as needed for your application.

 

4. Configure PHP-FPM:

PHP-FPM is needed to process PHP scripts. Configure it to run with Nginx:

Edit the PHP-FPM configuration to set the correct user and group for running PHP processes. Open /etc/php83/php-fpm.d/www.conf:

vi /etc/php83/php-fpm.d/www.conf

The php83 path can be replace based on what php installed.

Find the lines for user and group, and set them to nginx:

user = nginx
group = nginx

 

5. Configure Nginx to Use PHP-FPM:

Now, configure Nginx to pass PHP requests to PHP-FPM.

Edit the Nginx configuration file (usually /etc/nginx/nginx.conf or /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf or /etc/nginx/http.d/default.conf):

vi /etc/nginx/http.d/default.conf

Inside the server block, make sure you have the following configuration to pass PHP files to PHP-FPM:

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  localhost;
    location / {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /usr/share/nginx/html$fastcgi_script_name;
        include        fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Ensure that the root path (/usr/share/nginx/html) is where your PHP files will be located.

If you dont have path /usr/share/nginx/html yet:

mkdir -p /usr/share/nginx/html

 

6. Start PHP-FPM:

Start PHP-FPM:

rc-service php-fpm83 start

To enable PHP-FPM on boot:

rc-update add php-fpm83

 

7. Test the Configuration:

  1. Create a simple index.php file to test PHP processing. Place this in the root of the Nginx server:

    echo "some php code"> /usr/share/nginx/html/index.php

  2. Restart Nginx to apply any changes:

    rc-service nginx restart

  3. Open your web browser and navigate to http://your-server-ip/. You should see the PHP info page if everything is set up correctly.

 

8. Firewall (Optional):

If you're running a firewall, make sure to allow HTTP traffic (port 80):

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

 

9. Troubleshooting:

If something goes wrong, check the logs for Nginx (/var/log/nginx/) and PHP (/var/log/php-fpm.log) for debugging.