How should I Accomplish a Better Docker Workflow? - node.js

Question

Everytime I change a file in the nodejs app I have to rebuild the docker image.
This feels redundant and slows my workflow. Is there a proper way to sync the nodejs app files without rebuilding the whole image again, or is this a normal usage?

Answer 1

It sounds like you want to speed up the development process. In that case I would recommend to mount your directory in your container using the docker run -v option: https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/dockervolumes/#mount-a-host-directory-as-a-data-volume
Once you are done developing your program build the image and now start docker without the -v option.

Answer 2

What I ended up doing was:
1) Using volumes with the docker run command - so I could change the code without rebuilding the docker image every time.
2) I had an issue with node_modules being overwritten because a volume acts like a mount - fixed it with node's PATH traversal.
Dockerfile:
FROM node:5.2
# Create our app directories
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
RUN npm install -g nodemon
# This will cache npm install
# And presist the node_modules
# Even after we are using the volume (overwrites)
COPY package.json /usr/src/
RUN cd /usr/src && npm install
#Expose node's port
EXPOSE 3000
# Run the app
CMD nodemon server.js
Command-line:
to build:
docker build -t web-image
to run:
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/usr/src/app -p 3000:3000 --name web web-image

Answer 3

You could have also done something like change the instruction and it says look in the directory specified by the build context argument of docker build and find the package.json file and then copy that into the current working directory of the container and then RUN npm install and afterwards we will COPY over everything else like so:
# Specify base image
FROM node:alpine
WORKDIR /usr/app
# Install some dependencies
COPY ./package.json ./
RUN npm install
# Setup default command
CMD ["npm", "start"]
You can make as many changes as you want and it will not invalidate the cache for any of these steps here.
The only time that npm install will be executed again is if we make a change to that step or any step above it.
So unless you make a change to the package.json file, the npm install will not be executed again.
So we can test this by running the docker build -t <tagname>/<project-name> .
Now I have made a change to the Dockerfile so you will see some steps re run and eventually our successfully tagged and built image.
Docker detected the change to the step and every step after it, but not the npm install step.
The lesson here is that yes it does make a difference the order in which all these instructions are placed in a Dockerfile.
Its nice to segment out these operations to ensure you are only copying the bare minimum.