Run PHP in WSL via Docker

This Gist provides a small wrapper script to run PHP inside Docker from WSL, without installing PHP locally.

Requirements

• WSL installed
• Docker Desktop installed and enabled for your WSL distro
• Bash

Setup

Save the script as php:

chmod +x php

Optional: move it somewhere in your PATH:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv php ~/.local/bin/php

Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

Usage

Run PHP files from any directory:

php script.php

Run inline PHP:

php -r 'echo PHP_VERSION . PHP_EOL;'

The script uses the official php:8.5-cli Docker image and mounts your current working directory, so files are available inside the container.