PHP Configuration

You can customize PHP settings using environment variables in your Docker Compose configuration. This includes memory limits, upload constraints, execution timeouts, and OPcache tuning.

Minimum Memory Requirement

WordPress requires a minimum of 64MB PHP memory to function. Settings below 64M (such as 32M) will cause HTTP 500 errors. If you experience "This page isn’t working" errors, increase PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT to at least 64M.

PHP Memory & Upload Limits

Environment Variable	Description	Default
PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT	PHP memory limit per script	PHP default (128M)
PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE	Maximum upload file size	PHP default
PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE	Maximum POST data size	PHP default

wordpress:
  image: ghcr.io/supanadit/containers/wordpress-apache:6.9-r3
  environment:
    PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: 128M
    PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE: 64M
    PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE: 64M

PHP Execution Timeouts

Environment Variable	Description	Default
PHP_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME	Maximum script execution time (seconds)	30
PHP_MAX_INPUT_TIME	Maximum time for parsing request data (seconds)	60

wordpress:
  image: ghcr.io/supanadit/containers/wordpress-apache:6.9-r3
  environment:
    PHP_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME: 30
    PHP_MAX_INPUT_TIME: 60

OPcache Configuration

OPcache improves performance by caching precompiled PHP bytecode. You can tune these settings for your memory constraints.

Environment Variable	Description	Default
PHP_OPCACHE_ENABLE	Enable/disable OPcache (true/false)	true
PHP_OPCACHE_MEMORY	OPcache memory consumption (MB)	128
PHP_OPCACHE_MAX_ACCELERATED_FILES	Maximum number of cached scripts	~2000

Recommended Settings

For 256MB RAM target:

wordpress:
  image: ghcr.io/supanadit/containers/wordpress-apache:6.9-r3
  environment:
    PHP_OPCACHE_MEMORY: 32
    PHP_OPCACHE_MAX_ACCELERATED_FILES: 200

For 128MB RAM target (OPcache disabled, minimum viable):

wordpress:
  image: ghcr.io/supanadit/containers/wordpress-apache:6.9-r3
  environment:
    PHP_OPCACHE_ENABLE: "false"
    PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: 64M  # Minimum for WordPress to function

warning

Disabling OPcache will impact performance as PHP scripts will be re-compiled on every request. Only use this for extremely memory-constrained environments. Settings below 64M will cause HTTP 500 errors.

Complete Example

wordpress:
  image: ghcr.io/supanadit/containers/wordpress-apache:6.9-r3
  restart: always
  environment:
    WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: mariadb:3306
    WORDPRESS_DB_USER: root
    WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: secret
    WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wordpress
    WORDPRESS_FS_METHOD: "direct"

    # PHP Memory & Upload
    PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT: 128M
    PHP_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE: 64M
    PHP_POST_MAX_SIZE: 64M

    # PHP Execution
    PHP_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME: 30
    PHP_MAX_INPUT_TIME: 60

    # OPcache
    PHP_OPCACHE_MEMORY: 64
    PHP_OPCACHE_MAX_ACCELERATED_FILES: 500
  volumes:
    - ./.data/wordpress:/content