PHP, but sharper — custom Docker images built from source with all the modules you actually need.

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🔪 Razor-PHP

✨ What is this?

Stop wasting time compiling PHP from scratch every time you spin up a project.

Razor-PHP gives you:

• ⚡ Built from source — no bloated base images.
• 🔌 All the essentials — and most of the “you’ll probably need these anyway” extensions.
• 🪶 Slim & optimized — stripped down, no fluff.
• 🧩 Ready for real-world projects — suitable for APIs, CLI tools, workers, and full-stack apps.

LiquidRazor PHP Images

Lean, security-minded PHP images built from source with a clean runtime.

Razor-PHP publishes CLI and FPM images for the latest stable PHP major release and the immediately previous stable PHP major release.

Images are multi-arch, published for both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64, and are dual-published to Docker Hub and GHCR.

All images are compiled against the latest stable Debian major release.

Quick start

Use the global aliases when you want the latest stable PHP line:

# Pull latest stable FPM image
docker pull liquidrazor/php:fpm

# Pull latest stable CLI image
docker pull liquidrazor/php:cli

# Pull latest stable development variants
docker pull liquidrazor/php:fpm-dev
docker pull liquidrazor/php:cli-dev

Use major-line tags when you want to stay on a specific supported PHP major version:

# Replace <major> with a supported PHP major version
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<major>-fpm
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<major>-cli
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<major>-fpm-dev
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<major>-cli-dev

Use immutable patch tags when reproducible builds matter:

# Replace <version> with an exact published PHP patch version
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<version>-fpm
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<version>-cli
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<version>-fpm-dev
docker pull liquidrazor/php:<version>-cli-dev

Mirror on GHCR: ghcr.io/liquidrazor/php:<tag>

What’s inside

• Built from source for the latest two stable PHP major versions.
• Compiled against the latest stable Debian major release.
• Common extensions enabled: opcache, mbstring, intl, gd with JPEG/PNG/WebP/FreeType support, pdo_pgsql, pgsql, bcmath, sockets, pcntl, zip, xml, and other common runtime extensions.
• PECL extensions: redis, apcu, igbinary, yaml.
• FPM tuned for containers with pm=ondemand, /ping, /status, and a non-root app user.
• Development variants include xdebug, pcov, Composer, and basic development tools.

Supported platform versions

PHP

Razor-PHP supports:

• the latest stable PHP major release;
• the immediately previous stable PHP major release.

When a new PHP major version becomes stable, support shifts forward:

• the new stable major is added;
• the previous stable major remains supported;
• the oldest previously supported major is retired.

This keeps the image set current without pretending old runtimes deserve eternal life because someone, somewhere, forgot to upgrade a cron script in 2019.

Debian

All Razor-PHP images are compiled against the latest stable Debian major release.

When a new Debian major version becomes stable, the image build baseline moves forward to that Debian release. Older Debian major releases are not kept as long-term build targets unless explicitly required for a temporary compatibility migration.

The Debian baseline is intentionally tied to the latest stable major release so the images receive modern toolchains, current system libraries, and actively maintained security updates.

Tags

Global aliases

Global aliases track the latest stable supported PHP line:

• fpm
• cli
• fpm-dev
• cli-dev

Use these when you want current stable PHP without pinning a major version.

Rolling major tags

Rolling major tags track the latest patch release within a supported PHP major version:

• <major>-fpm
• <major>-cli
• <major>-fpm-dev
• <major>-cli-dev

Use these when you want to stay on one supported PHP major line while still receiving patch updates.

Immutable patch tags

Immutable patch tags point to one exact PHP patch release and never change once published:

• <version>-fpm
• <version>-cli
• <version>-fpm-dev
• <version>-cli-dev

Use these for reproducible builds, release artifacts, CI baselines, and anything where “latest” is not a strategy but a small controlled fire.

Architectures

Images are published as multi-architecture manifest lists for:

• linux/amd64
• linux/arm64

Docker automatically pulls the correct architecture for your platform.

Minimal FPM usage

docker run --rm \
  -p 9000:9000 \
  -u app \
  -v "$PWD:/app" \
  -e PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT=256M \
  liquidrazor/php:fpm

Health endpoints inside the container:

• Ping: /ping
• Status: /status

Example: Docker Compose

services:
  php:
    image: liquidrazor/php:fpm
    user: app
    environment:
      PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: 256M
    volumes:
      - ./:/app
    expose:
      - "9000"

  caddy:
    image: caddy:alpine
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
      - ./:/app

Configure Caddy, Nginx, Traefik, or whatever reverse-proxy beast you keep in the basement to forward PHP requests to php:9000.

Environment / overrides

Drop .ini files in /etc/php/conf.d by mounting them at runtime or baking them into a derived image.

# Example: raise upload limits
echo "upload_max_filesize=50M" > ./90-upload.ini

docker run --rm \
  -v "$PWD/90-upload.ini:/etc/php/conf.d/90-upload.ini:ro" \
  liquidrazor/php:fpm

FPM pool defaults excerpt:

listen = 0.0.0.0:9000
pm = ondemand
pm.max_children = 10
pm.process_idle_timeout = 10s
ping.path = /ping
pm.status_path = /status
user = app
group = app

Versioning policy

Razor-PHP publishes images for the latest stable PHP major release and the immediately previous stable PHP major release.

All images are compiled against the latest stable Debian major release.

Tag behavior:

• Global aliases such as fpm and cli track the latest stable supported PHP line.
• Rolling major tags such as <major>-fpm track the latest patch release for that supported major line.
• Immutable patch tags such as <version>-fpm never change once published.

Rebuild behavior:

• Images are rebuilt regularly to receive base distribution security updates.
• PHP patch updates are published under rolling major tags and exact immutable patch tags.
• Consumers that need deterministic production releases should pin immutable patch tags.

Troubleshooting

Check loaded extensions:

docker run --rm liquidrazor/php:cli php -m

Inspect the multi-architecture manifest:

docker buildx imagetools inspect liquidrazor/php:fpm

Check FPM connectivity:

nc -vz localhost 9000

Run the PHP version command:

docker run --rm liquidrazor/php:cli php -v

Mirrors

• Docker Hub: docker.io/liquidrazor/php:<tag>
• GHCR: ghcr.io/liquidrazor/php:<tag>