The easiest way to run a PHP script / website

The situation: you wish to run a piece of standard PHP code (no dependency) like the one below:

<?php

echo "<h2>Incorrect, silent bug</h2>";

print_r(json_decode(utf8_decode("Ipso lorem"), true));

echo "<h2>Incorrect, we got an exception</h2>";

print_r(json_decode(utf8_decode("Ipso lorem"), true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR));

The easiest way is to:

• Create a temporary directory like mkdir /tmp/snippet && /tmp/snippet,
• Create an index.php file there (with your snippet like here above),
• Run this command in the console: docker run -d -p 8080:80 -u ${UID}:${GID} -v "$PWD":/var/www/html php:7.4-apache and,
• Surf to http://127.0.0.1:8080.

It's done.

Explanations for the docker run -d -p 8080:80 -v "$PWD":/var/www/html php:7.4-apache command:

• We wish to make the local website accessible on port 8080 (so http://127.0.0.1:8080),
• We wish to synchronize the current folder (i.e. /tmp/snippet) with the Docker container so changes in any file in /tmp/snippet will be immediately reflected in Docker and thus in your browser,
• And we wish to use php:7.4-apache. Just replace with php:8.2-apache to switch to PHP 8.2 f.i.