Alpine Moodle¶

A lightweight Moodle Docker image built on Alpine Linux.

Docker Image Size

What is this image?¶

erseco/alpine-moodle packages Moodle into a single, small (~100 MB) container based on erseco/alpine-php-webserver. It runs Nginx + PHP-FPM under a non-privileged user, includes Moosh CLI, and is configured entirely through environment variables.

Highlights:

PHP 8.3 FPM with ondemand process manager — low idle footprint
Works with PostgreSQL, MariaDB/MySQL, or SQLite (single-container dev mode)
Optional Redis session handler for HA deployments
Supports Moodle 4.x, 5.0, 5.1 (with /public directory) and main
Multi-arch images: amd64, arm64, arm/v7, arm/v6, 386, ppc64le, s390x
Internal cron via runit (configurable)
Logs go straight to docker logs
Extensible via pre/post configuration hooks and POST_CONFIGURE_COMMANDS

Where to start¶

Quick Start — get a Moodle instance running in under a minute.
Docker Compose — practical stacks for dev, production and proxied setups.
Reverse Proxy — Traefik, Nginx, NPM, Apache, Caddy recipes.
Environment Variables — every supported knob, with defaults.
Persistence & Volumes — what to mount and what to back up.
Upgrading — how to move between Moodle versions safely.
Troubleshooting — solutions to the most common deployment issues.
FAQ — short answers to recurring questions.

Minimal example¶

docker run -d \
  -p 80:8080 \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_TYPE=sqlite3 \
  -e MOODLE_PASSWORD=ChangeMe123! \
  -v moodledata:/var/www/moodledata \
  erseco/alpine-moodle

Open http://localhost and log in with moodleuser / ChangeMe123!.

SQLite is for development and demos only

Use PostgreSQL or MariaDB for any real deployment. See Docker Compose for production-grade examples.

Project links¶

Source code: https://github.com/erseco/alpine-moodle
Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/erseco/alpine-moodle
GitHub Container Registry: ghcr.io/erseco/alpine-moodle
Issue tracker: https://github.com/erseco/alpine-moodle/issues