How to mount a single file in a volume

Question

I am trying to dockerize a PHP application. In the dockerfile, I download the archive, extract it, etc.

Everything works fine. However, if a new version gets released

Answer 1

The way that worked for me is to use a bind mount

  version: "3.7"    
  services:
  app:
    image: app:latest
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: ./sourceFile.yaml
        target: /location/targetFile.yaml

Thanks mike breed for the answer over at: Mount single file from volume using docker-compose

You need to use the "long syntax" to express a bind mount using the volumes key: https://docs.docker.com/compose/compose-file/#long-syntax-3

Answer 2

In windows, if you need the a ${PWD} env variable in your docker-compose.yml you can creat a .env file in the same directory as your docker-compose.yml file then insert manualy the location of your folder.

CMD (pwd_var.bat) :

echo PWD=%cd% >> .env

Powershell (pwd_var.ps1) :

$PSDefaultParameterValues['Out-File:Encoding'] = 'utf8'; echo "PWD=$(get-location).path" >> .env

There is more good features hear for docker-compose .env variables: https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/envvars/ especially for the COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS env variable that allow docker compose to accept windows path with baskslash "\".

When you want to share a file on windows, the file must exist before sharing it with the container.

Answer 3

I had the same issue, docker-compose was creating a directory instead of a file, then crashing mid-way.

what i did :

1. run the container without mapping the file

2. copy the config file to the host location :

   docker cp containername:/var/www/html/config.php ./config.php

3. remove the container (docker-compose down)

4. put the mapping back and remount up the container

docker compose will find the config file, and will map that instead of trying to create a directory.

Answer 4

For anyone using Windows container like me, know that you CANNOT bind or mount single files using windows container.

The following examples will fail when using Windows-based containers, as the destination of a volume or bind mount inside the container must be one of: a non-existing or empty directory; or a drive other than C:. Further, the source of a bind mount must be a local directory, not a file.

net use z: \\remotemachine\share

docker run -v z:\foo:c:\dest ...

docker run -v \\uncpath\to\directory:c:\dest ...

docker run -v c:\foo\somefile.txt:c:\dest ...

docker run -v c:\foo:c: ...

docker run -v c:\foo:c:\existing-directory-with-contents ...

It's hard to spot but it's there

Link to the Github issue regarding mapping files into Windows container

Answer 5

I have same issue on my Windows 8.1

It turned out that it was due to case-sensitivity of path. I called docker-compose up from directory cd /c/users/alex/ and inside container a file was turned into directory.

But when I did cd /c/Users/alex/ (not Users capitalized) and called docker-compose up from there, it worked.

In my system both Users dir and Alex dir are capitalized, though it seems like only Users dir matter.

Answer 6

I had the same issue on Windows, Docker 18.06.1-ce-win73 (19507).

Removing and re-adding the shared drive via the Docker settings panel and everything worked again.