Running an HTML site in seconds using Docker

Imagine the following situation: you've an HTML website on your computer and you would like to run it. But how? Should you install Apache or Nginx? Yes, you should ... or just run exactly ONE COMMAND to start Docker.

Years ago, to open a local website, you needed to install f.i. EasyPhp or Wamp, configure a lot of things, restart the computer, make sure EasyPhp or Wamp was running in the background and ... pffffiou.

Those times are thankfully, definitively over.

For a change, this article will use PowerShell, but I could, of course, have used DOS or Linux. So let's play with Powershell.

Result​

Just one command, run from the folder containing your static site: docker run -d --name static-site -p 8080:80 -v .:/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/ httpd:alpine.

Once done, just start your preferred browser and surf to http://localhost:8080. Bingo!

You've a fully working site. Crazy no?

Why it works​

• The httpd:alpine image mounts the current folder (-v .:/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/) as Apache's docroot, so whatever HTML is already on your disk gets served immediately.
• Docker downloads Apache for you the first time; nothing to install, configure or keep running in the background.

Two natural follow-ups: your site is served by a real Apache, so every directive from Apache .htaccess file works here; and if your pages are not plain HTML but PHP, use The easiest way to run a PHP script / website instead.

Don't have a site to try this on yet?​

For the illustration, I'll download a free static website from https://github.com/toidicode/template. Take a look to demos and just download one ZIP.

I'll jump in my C:\temp directory and download the zip. To do this, I will execute the following command: curl https://github.com/toidicode/template/raw/master/src/100-cookingschool.zip -o demo.zip (yes, curl is available for PowerShell too).

The next thing to do is to unzip the file. I can do it with Windows Explorer for sure but I'm a console guy so let's run Expand-Archive demo.zip -DestinationPath demo.

Ok, now, we've a demo folder containing a static website. Jump into it: cd demo, then run the one command from above in that folder.

Conclusion​

One docker run, no Apache/Nginx install, no configuration file to touch: that's the whole recipe. Point it at any folder of static HTML and it's served in seconds — throw the container away with docker rm -f static-site when you're done and your disk is exactly as it was.