In order to run the source code included in this book, we recommend that you start by installing Docker on your computer (https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/). Docker is a software container platform that allows you to easily connect to your computer’s devices in an isolated and sophisticated chroot-like environment. Unlike virtual machines, containers do not come bundled with full operating systems, but only come with the required binaries in order to run some software. You can install Docker on Windows, Mac, or Linux. It should be noted, however, that some features, such as full-featured networking, are still not available when running Docker on macOS (https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/networking/#known-limitations-use-cases-and-workarounds).

The main Docker image that we will be using throughout this book is Linux for PHP 8.1 (https://linuxforphp.net/) with a non thread-safe version of PHP 7.1.16 and MariaDB (MySQL) 10.2.8 (asclinux/linuxforphp-8.1:7.1.16-nts). To start the main container, enter the following command:

# docker run --rm -it 
> -v ${PWD}/:/srv/fasterweb 
> -p 8181:80 
> asclinux/linuxforphp-8.1:7.1.16-nts 
> /bin/bash

If you prefer using multithreading technologies while optimizing your code, you can do so by running a thread-safe version of Linux for PHP (asclinux/linuxforphp-8.1:7.0.29-zts).

Moreover, you should docker commit any changes you make to the container and create new images of your container that you can docker run at a later time. If you are not familiar with the Docker command line and its run command, find the documentation at https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/.

Finally, the three following commands must be run inside the Linux for PHP container whenever you start an original Linux for PHP image and wish to start working with most of the code examples contained in this book:

# /etc/init.d/mysql start
# /etc/init.d/php-fpm start
# /etc/init.d/httpd start