Quickly install WordPress in just three commands

Do you think it's possible to run a new WordPress site in just three commands? Impossible, isn't it? Well, in fact, yes, it's possible.

Let's take a look...

Three commands, one WordPress site​

Here they are, in full:

$ docker network create wordpress

$ docker run -d --name db_wordpress --hostname db_wordpress --network wordpress -e MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=1 -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress -e MYSQL_USER=wpuser -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=example mysql:8.4

$ docker run -d --name app_wordpress --hostname app_wordpress --network wordpress -p 8080:80 -e WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=db_wordpress -e WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress -e WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wpuser -e WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=example wordpress:php8.3-apache
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Surf to http://127.0.0.1:8080 and WordPress greets you with its installation wizard:

No compose.yaml, no wp-config.php to edit: a shared network lets the two containers talk to each other, and every setting WordPress needs is passed as an environment variable on the command line.

In the Create your Joomla website using Docker article, we learned that as soon as we need more than one Docker service (php/apache as well as mysql), we need a compose.yaml file. It's true and it's the easiest way to manage the application in the long run — but for a throwaway site, running the containers by hand works just as well. Let's look at those three commands one by one.

First step, we need a network​

Using a network will allow containers to communicate with each other (see Using Docker network and the extra_hosts property for the details).

We'll create our network. Please copy/paste the command below in a terminal (DOS or Linux) and run it.

$ docker network create wordpress▋

Second step, we need a database container​

For this article, I propose to use MySQL 8.x or, if you prefer it, MariaDB 11.x. Select the one you prefer and execute the command in a terminal.

For MySQL 8.x:

$ docker run -d --name db_wordpress --hostname db_wordpress --network wordpress -e MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=1 -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress -e MYSQL_USER=wpuser -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=example mysql:8.4▋

For MariaDB:

$ docker run -d --name db_wordpress --hostname db_wordpress --network wordpress -e MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=1 -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress -e MYSQL_USER=wpuser -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=example mariadb:11.4▋

Once started by Docker, the MySQL / MariaDB container will create an empty database called wordpress, a user called wpuser and his password will be example (as defined by our variables MYSQL_DATABASE, MYSQL_USER and MYSQL_PASSWORD). The container will be named db_wordpress (as defined by --hostname).

Third step, we need WordPress​

And now, we need a second container for WordPress itself. I propose to use the latest version available at that time:

$ docker run -d --name app_wordpress --hostname app_wordpress --network wordpress -p 8080:80 -e WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=db_wordpress -e WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress -e WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wpuser -e WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=example wordpress:php8.3-apache▋

That command runs WordPress in an Apache container and makes the site available at http://127.0.0.1:8080 — the screen shown at the beginning of this article.

The -p 8080:80 flag is the only one about your host machine: change the port if it is already taken. All the others describe how WordPress reaches the database container, by its --hostname, over the wordpress network.

Optional, start phpmyadmin​

As we've seen in the Using Adminer, pgadmin or phpmyadmin to access your Docker database container article, we can access a database container using f.i. phpMyAdmin. To do this, just run the following command in a terminal:

$ docker run -d --rm --network wordpress --name phpmyadmin -e PMA_HOST=db_wordpress -p 8089:80 phpmyadmin▋

By surfing to http://127.0.0.1:8089, you can connect to the database. Credentials to use for the connection are wpuser / example.

Remove containers​

If you wish to stop and remove containers after usage, you can run the following bloc of instructions in a Linux terminal:

$ docker rm $(docker stop $(docker ps -a -q --filter="name=app_wordpress"))

$ docker rm $(docker stop $(docker ps -a -q --filter="name=db_wordpress"))

$ docker network rm wordpress
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Or, by hand, go to your Docker Desktop interface, click on the containers tab and remove the containers manually.

Conclusion​

As introduced, we just need three commands to create, from scratch, a new WordPress site on our disk. This takes just seconds (depending on the speed of your computer). Easy, no?

Keep in mind that everything here lives inside the containers: the day you run the removal commands above, the site is gone. If you want it to survive, the next thing to add is a volume.