localhost not working in docker for mac

Question

I am using latest Docker for mac. I am running into this strange issue. I can access my webapp via http://127.0.0.1/ but not http://localhost/ however I can access https://localhost/ (self signed cert). So, I am not sure what is wrong here.

This is my docker compose.

version: "3"
services:
  php:
    build:
      context: .
    container_name: php
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
      - conf:/etc/apache2/sites-enabled
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"

and this is my Apache config

<VirtualHost _default_:80>
  ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html

  <Directory /var/www/html>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
  </Directory>

  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
  <VirtualHost _default_:443>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    <Directory /var/www/html>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/certs/localhost.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/certs/localhost.key

    <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
        SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
    </FilesMatch>

    <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
        SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
    </Directory>

    BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-6]" \
        nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
        downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
    BrowserMatch "MSIE [17-9]" ssl-unclean-shutdown

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

  </VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

Answer 1

You can try with docker.for.mac.localhost

Answer 2

Just putting @danwild comment in answer form for more visibility.

You can now access localhost from within the container using host.docker.internal. See the docs