How to mount a host directory in a Docker container

Question

I am trying to mount a host directory into a Docker container so that any updates done on the host is reflected into the Docker containers.

Where am I doing something wrong. Here is what I did:

kishore$ cat Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:trusty
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get -y install git curl vim
CMD ["/bin/bash"]
WORKDIR /test_container
VOLUME ["/test_container"]

kishore$ tree
.
├── Dockerfile
└── main_folder
    ├── tfile1.txt
    ├── tfile2.txt
    ├── tfile3.txt
    └── tfile4.txt

1 directory, 5 files
kishore$ pwd
/Users/kishore/tdock

kishore$ docker build --tag=k3_s3:latest .

Uploading context 7.168 kB
Uploading context
Step 0 : FROM ubuntu:trusty
 ---> 99ec81b80c55
Step 1 : RUN apt-get update
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 1c7282005040
Step 2 : RUN apt-get -y install git curl vim
 ---> Using cache
 ---> aed48634e300
Step 3 : CMD ["/bin/bash"]
 ---> Running in d081b576878d
 ---> 65db8df48595
Step 4 : WORKDIR /test_container
 ---> Running in 5b8d2ccd719d
 ---> 250369b30e1f
Step 5 : VOLUME ["/test_container"]
 ---> Running in 72ca332d9809
 ---> 163deb2b1bc5
Successfully built 163deb2b1bc5
Removing intermediate container b8bfcb071441
Removing intermediate container d081b576878d
Removing intermediate container 5b8d2ccd719d
Removing intermediate container 72ca332d9809

kishore$ docker run -d -v /Users/kishore/main_folder:/test_container k3_s3:latest c9f9a7e09c54ee1c2cc966f15c963b4af320b5203b8c46689033c1ab8872a0ea

kishore$ docker run -i -t k3_s3:latest /bin/bash

root@0f17e2313a46:/test_container# ls -al
total 8
drwx------  2 root root 4096 Apr 29 05:15 .
drwxr-xr-x 66 root root 4096 Apr 29 05:15 ..

root@0f17e2313a46:/test_container# exit exit

kishore$ docker -v
Docker version 0.9.1, build 867b2a9

• I don't know how to check boot2docker version

Questions, issues facing:

1. How do I need to link the main_folder to the test_container folder present inside the docker container?
2. I need to make this automatically. How do I to do that without really using the run -d -v command?
3. What happens if the boot2docker crashes? Where are the Docker files stored (apart from Dockerfile)?

Answer 1

There are a couple ways you can do this. The simplest way to do so is to use the dockerfile ADD command like so:

ADD . /path/inside/docker/container

However, any changes made to this directory on the host after building the dockerfile will not show up in the container. This is because when building a container, docker compresses the directory into a .tar and uploads that context into the container permanently.

The second way to do this is the way you attempted, which is to mount a volume. Due to trying to be as portable as possible you cannot map a host directory to a docker container directory within a dockerfile, because the host directory can change depending on which machine you are running on. To map a host directory to a docker container directory you need to use the -v flag when using docker run, e.g.,:

# Run a container using the `alpine` image, mount the `/tmp`
# directory from your host into the `/container/directory`
# directory in your container, and run the `ls` command to
# show the contents of that directory.
docker run 
    -v /tmp:/container/directory 
    alpine 
    ls /container/directory