Moodle Test Environment

Local Docker environment for testing Moodle plugins and testing upgrades. Can restore backups to replicate the production environment. To set up or develop a plugin, see PLUGINS.md.

Requirements

• Docker and Docker Compose
• Add your ssh key to github account
• Clone with submodules:

  git clone --branch {branch} --recurse-submodules git@github.com:LibreriadeSatoshi/moodle-test-environment.git

  If you already cloned without submodules:

  git submodule update --init

  Then:

  cd libreria-moodle
  git checkout {branch}

  Fill in {branch} with dev or main, depending of which environment you want to test locally.
• SSH access to the Moodle host (~/.ssh/moodle-mvp.pem) — only needed to fetch backups. Ask @Ivan for it.

How it works

The environment is split across three Compose services that share two named volumes (pgdata, moodledata):

• testmoodle-fresh — one-time init: creates the database and runs Moodle's installer against an empty schema.
• testmoodle-restore — one-time init: creates the database and restores the latest backup from backup/.
• testmoodle — normal run: just starts Postgres and Apache against the already-prepared volumes.

All three publish port 8888, so only one runs at a time. Pick an init service the first time, then use testmoodle for every subsequent boot.

Deploying to Lorien

Lorien mirrors custom-moodle@dev. Deploy with a single command instead of running the pull/submodule/upgrade/purge steps by hand:

ssh -t root@10.17.9.36 '~/moodle-test-environment/deploy.sh'

The script is lock-guarded (safe for the whole team), idempotent, and also handles the recurring mod_hvp overlay. Pass --build when the Dockerfile changed. See docs/lorien-deploy.md for details and the planned auto-deploy-on-push setup.

Initializing the environment

Pick one of the two init paths. You only do this once — the data lives in named volumes after that.

Option A — fresh empty install

Boots a fresh Moodle install with Librería's plugins against an empty Postgres database.

docker compose up testmoodle-fresh

Option B — restore from a production backup

Boots Moodle with the latest backup in backup/ restored into the database.

docker compose up testmoodle-restore

In both cases, wait for the Started. log line, then open http://localhost:8888 and log in with:

• user: admin
• password: Admin1234!

Note: the Postgres password is pass.

Running the environment

Once initialized, boot the env without re-installing anything:

docker compose up testmoodle

Stop it with:

docker compose down

The named volumes persist across down/up, so the next up testmoodle resumes the same state.

To get a shell inside the running container:

docker compose exec -ti testmoodle bash

Resetting the environment

To wipe the database and moodledata and start over, remove the named volumes:

docker compose down -v

Then re-run one of the two init services above.

Note: down -v is also required when switching between fresh and restore — the init services assume empty volumes and will error on a populated database.

Updating the test environment's state

The backup/ directory is git ignored. To capture the current state as a new backup:

1- Boot the environment and make all the changes you want.

2- Get a shell inside the environment:

docker compose exec -ti testmoodle bash

3- Run the backup tool — the backup is stored in the host's backup/ directory:

./backup-moodle.sh

The next time you initialize with testmoodle-restore, it will pick up the latest backup automatically.

Updating the test environment's code

Libreria's Moodle code lives in the libreria-moodle git submodule. To pull in upstream changes:

1- Fetch the latest commits on the submodule's tracked branch:

git submodule update --remote libreria-moodle

2- Commit the bumped submodule pointer so others get the same version:

git add libreria-moodle
git commit -m "Bump libreria-moodle"

3- Restart the container to pick up the new code:

docker compose down && docker compose up testmoodle

Note: after pulling this repo on another machine, run git submodule update --init to sync the submodule to the committed pointer.

Note: schema changes from new/updated plugins won't apply automatically on a restored env. After bumping the submodule, run Moodle's upgrade CLI:

docker compose exec -ti testmoodle bash
php /root/libreria-moodle/public/admin/cli/upgrade.php --non-interactive