FrankenPHP watch mode doesn't detect file changes with Docker (Ubuntu)

[sdkOyh2726]

I'm using FrankenPHP with Docker Compose on native Ubuntu (not Docker Desktop) for a Symfony application. Even though I've enabled "watch" mode, FrankenPHP isn't detecting any PHP file changes, and thus does not automatically reload the application. I must manually restart the container every time.

Configuration:

Dockerfile:

FROM dunglas/frankenphp:sha-30e33e0-php8.2

ENV FRANKENPHP_CONFIG="worker ./public/index.php --watch"

# add additional extensions here:
RUN install-php-extensions \
    pdo_mysql \
    gd \
    intl \
    zip \
    opcache

Docker-compose.yml:

version: '3'

services:
  frankenphp:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile

    environment:
      APP_RUNTIME: "Runtime\\FrankenPhpSymfony\\Runtime"

    volumes:
      - $PWD:/app

    ports:
      - "8001:80"
      - "8000:443"
      - "443:443/udp"

    tty: true

OS: Native Ubuntu

Expected behavior:

FrankenPHP should automatically reload when PHP files change, without needing a manual container restart.

Actual behavior:

No reload occurs without manually restarting the container.

Questions:

What's the recommended approach for further diagnosing or permanently resolving this issue?

Thanks for your help!

[AlliBalliBaba]

Enabling the watcher via the FRANKENPHP_CONFIG environment variable like this currently won't work, you probably need a to use a separate Caddyfile (as described here):

frankenphp {
    worker {
        file ./public/index.php
        watch
    }
}

[AlliBalliBaba]

Thinking about it though, maybe a one-liner like this would make sense to support in the future

worker ./public/index.php watch

[sdkOyh2726]

Hello, thank you for your response. I tried what you suggested, but it doesn't work:

Here’s the Caddyfile I created:

{
    frankenphp {
        worker {
            file ./public/index.php
            watch
        }
    }
}

And here is the error:

backend-frankenphp-1 | Error: adapting config using caddyfile: parsing caddyfile tokens for 'frankenphp': strconv.Atoi: parsing "watch": invalid syntax

[AlliBalliBaba]

Are you sure it's using this Caddyfile? This is what the default Caddyfile looks like: https://github.com/dunglas/frankenphp/blob/main/caddy/frankenphp/Caddyfile

You'll either have to overwrite the default Caddyfile at /etc/caddy/Caddyfile or change the entrypoint of the Docker container to something like:

frankenphp run -c /path/to/your/Caddyfile

The next FrankenPHP version will also support this shorthand (inspired by your discussion 🙂 ):

ENV FRANKENPHP_CONFIG="worker ./public/index.php watch"

[jskorlol]

    frankenphp {
        worker "{$APP_PUBLIC_PATH}/frankenphp-worker.php" {$CADDY_SERVER_WORKER_COUNT}
        watch
    }

INFO  Error: adapting config using caddyfile: parsing caddyfile tokens for 'frankenphp': unknown 'frankenphp' subdirective: 'watch' (allowed directives are: num_threads, max_threads, php_ini, worker).

It was working before, but an error has occurred since a specific version.

[AlliBalliBaba]

@jskorlol watch should be a subdirective of worker, not frankenphp. The new FrankenPHP version will error on misconfiguration. See here.

From your Caddyfile I can see that the built in watcher never worked, rather it was probably using Laravel Octane's watcher. You can disable Octane's watcher after fixing the configuration.