This section explains how Docksal works under the hood.
When you run fin update for the first time, Docksal installs several system containers.
To see the list, run fin docker ps --filter "label=io.docksal.group=system".
The docksal-ssh-agent service stores SSH keys and makes them available to other projects and containers.
SSH agent can handle passphrase protected ssh keys, so you don’t have to enter the passphrase every time the key is used. The passphrase is entered one only time, when the key is loaded into the agent.
See Using ssh-agent service for more information.
docksal-dns contains a running dnsmasq server that resolves *.docksal URI’s
to the Docksal VM IP address (or localhost if you’re running a native Docker app).
See DNS resolver for more information.
When you request project.docksal in your browser, Docksal’s DNS resolves it to Docksal’s IP and your request hits the
docksal-vhost-proxy container.
This is Docksal’s reverse proxy service, which routes the request to the appropriate project’s web container.
This allows for a seamless work with multiple project stacks at the same time.
Each project usually consists of at least 3 services: web, db, and cli.
The web service runs Apache server 2.2 or 2.4.
The db service runs MySQL 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, or 8.0.
The cli service runs php-fpm (used by web service) and also provides
a Linux console with all necessary command line tools installed and pre-configured
(e.g., drush, drupal console, wp-cli, phpcs, behat, mysql client, and many more).
The console can be accessed from the host machine via fin bash. Individual tools/binaries can be executed via fin exec.
If you are ready to customize Docksal service settings for your project, then check out Customizing project configurations
to learn about the docksal.yml structure and how to properly edit it.