Running a node.js script in Docker - node.js

Question

I have a node.js script that when it's executed it just run a process to copy two tables from one database to another one. If I run it in my local it works as it should, so there is no coding issue.
My problem is, I want to put that node.js program inside a docker image and execute that image (and the node.js script) when I needed. I created the image but when I run it just say that was executed x amount of time ago, but it doesn't do what the script does.
Can anyone explain me what I can do to accomplish this?
Steps are:
I need to pass an optional parameter to npm like: npm start Initial.
I need to be able to do the same inside the container:.
I have a file.sh that do something like this:
#!/bin/bash
if [ $1 = "Initial" ]; then
: npm start $1
else
: npm start
fi
But again, when I run the docker with something like this :
docker run [image-name] Initial
It doesn't give me any error but is not executing my node.js script. My Dockerfile is something like this:
...
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
RUN npm install
COPY ./ ./
RUN ["chmod", "+x", "/usr/src/app/file.sh"]
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/src/app/file.sh"]

Answer 1

You did not share the base image, but one issue might be that the base image is base on alpine so #!/bin/bash this will not work, plus you need variable expansion with proper to avoid error on empty.
#!/bin/sh
if [ "${1}" = "Initial" ]; then
npm start "${1}"
else
npm start
fi
Here is the working example that you can try
git clone https://github.com/Adiii717/docker-npm-argument.git
cd docker-npm-argument;
docker-compose build
docker-compose up
or to pass argument
docker-compose run docker-npm-argument argument1 arguments
To check same with docker run command
docker run --rm docker-npm-argument "Initial"
output
Args passed to docker run command are [ initial ]
starting application
> app#0.0.0 start /app
> node app.js "initial"
Node process arguments [ '/usr/local/bin/node', '/app/app.js', 'initial' ]

Answer 2

You need to pass an environment variable to your container. you can use -e:
docker run -e "foo=bar" [image-name]
then you have access to foo environment variables in your file.sh
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/#env-environment-variables