I needed a local instance to play around with phpBB, which I couldn’t find recent docker files for, so I just created my own. The below are the docker-compose.yml and Dockerfile for the latest version of phpBB as of now; 3.3.14.

Note: Make sure to change the variables inside the environment section in the docker-compose.yml file before installation.

Dockerfile

# Use the official PHP image with Apache
FROM php:8.2-apache 

# Install required PHP extensions and dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    wget \
    mariadb-client \
    unzip \
    && docker-php-ext-install mysqli pdo pdo_mysql \
    && docker-php-ext-enable mysqli pdo pdo_mysql \
    && apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Enable Apache modules
RUN a2enmod rewrite

# Set working directory
WORKDIR /var/www/html

# Download and extract phpBB
RUN wget https://download.phpbb.com/pub/release/3.3/3.3.14/phpBB-3.3.14.zip && \
    unzip phpBB-3.3.14.zip && \
    mv phpBB3 phpbb && \
    rm -rf phpBB-3.3.14.zip

# Set permissions
RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/phpbb && \
    chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/phpbb

# Expose Apache port
EXPOSE 80

CMD ["apache2-foreground"]

docker-compose.yml

services:
  phpbb:
    build: .
    container_name: phpbb
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - phpbb-data:/var/www/html/phpbb
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
    environment:
      - MYSQL_HOST=mymariadb_host
      - MYSQL_USER=myphpbb_mymariadb_user
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=MySuperStrongPassword12345
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=myphpbb_db

  mariadb:
    image: mariadb:10.11
    container_name: phpbb-mariadb
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpassword
      MYSQL_DATABASE: myphpbb_db
      MYSQL_USER: myphpbb_mymariadb_user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: MySuperStrongPassword12345
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  phpbb-data:
  db-data:

Let’s get to action!

• To build and start: docker-compose up -d --build
• Access the installation at http://localhost:8080/phpbb/install and enter the parameters inside the first environment section in the docker-compose.yml file
• After installation is complete from the above link, you have to run docker exec -it phpbb rm -rf /var/www/html/phpbb/install
• To wipe it and start all over: docker-compose down -v

I’ve made these file also available on my GitHub repo here: https://github.com/ahmedatawfik/usefulscripts/tree/main/docker/phpBB

That’s it, Enjoy!

References:

• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-apache-mariadb-php-lamp-stack-on-debian-10
• https://www.phpbb.com/community/docs/INSTALL.html