Install all needed node modules inside Docker container, not just copying them - node.js

Question

The problem is the following. We have a project with several services running with docker compose.
When one of us adds a new module with npm install <module name> --save, the package*.json files are going to be updated and the module is going to be installed in the node_module folder.
Here, running docker-compose up --build everything works fine.
Nevertheless, when someone else pulls the updated versions of the package*.json files and tries to run docker-compose up --build Docker outputs the error that the module is not found.
It seems like the local node_module folder is copied directly into the Docker container.
The question is how can we make it possible that all needed node modules which are in the package*.json files are going to be installed inside the container not just copied?
Here is one DOCKERFILE:
FROM node:14
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD npm run devStart
as well as the docker-compose.yaml file:
version: "3"
services:
list-service:
build:
context: ./list-service
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "4041"
volumes:
- ./list_service:/usr/src/app
#- /usr/src/app/node_modules
user-service:
build:
context: ./user_service
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "4040"
volumes:
- ./user_service:/usr/src/app
# - /usr/src/app/node_modules
api-gateway:
build:
context: ./api_gateway
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "5000:5000"
volumes:
- ./api_gateway:/usr/src/app
# - /usr/src/app/node_modules
date_list-service:
build:
context: ./date_list_service
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "4042"
volumes:
- ./date_list_service:/usr/src/app
# - /usr/src/app/node_modules
mongo:
container_name: mongo
image: mongo
command: mongod --port 27018
volumes:
- data:/data/db
volumes:
data:
We do have already a .dockerignore file:
node_modules
npm-debug.log
Update
#DazWilkin recognized that we mount our context into the container. This overrides the images content with local content. We do this because we use nodemon. Therefore, we can see changes in the code on the fly. Is there a possibility to exclude the node_modules directory from this?

Answer 1

I think that your issue is that Docker is caching layers and not detecting the changed package*.json.
What happens if everyone docker-compose up --build --no-cache?
NOTE because you're running npm install in the container image build, you don't need (and probably don't want) to npm install on the host beforehand
NOTE Since you're using containers, you may want to use a container registry too. That way, once the first updated docker images have been built, everyone else can pull these from the registry rather than rebuild them for themselves.
Update
I just noticed that you're mounting your context in container; you don't want to do that. It will override the work you've done building the container:
version: "3"
services:
list-service:
build:
context: ./list-service
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "4041"
volumes:
- ./list_service:/usr/src/app <<< ---- DELETE
#- /usr/src/app/node_modules
user-service:
build:
context: ./user_service
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "4040"
volumes:
- ./user_service:/usr/src/app <<< ---- DELETE
# - /usr/src/app/node_modules
api-gateway:
build:
context: ./api_gateway
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "5000:5000"
volumes:
- ./api_gateway:/usr/src/app <<< ---- DELETE
# - /usr/src/app/node_modules
date_list-service:
build:
context: ./date_list_service
dockerfile: Dockerfile
ports:
- "4042"
volumes:
- ./date_list_service:/usr/src/app <<< ---- DELETE
# - /usr/src/app/node_modules
mongo:
container_name: mongo
image: mongo
command: mongod --port 27018
volumes:
- data:/data/db
volumes:
data: