COPY with docker but with exclusion

Question

In a Dockerfile, I have

COPY . .

I want to exclude an entire directory, in my case, node_modules directory.

Something like this:

Answer 1

Create file .dockerignore in your docker build context directory (so in this case, most likely a directory that is a parent to node_modules) with one line in it:

**/node_modules

although you probably just want:

node_modules

Info about dockerignore: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#dockerignore-file

Answer 2

FOR A ONE LINER SOLUTION, type the following in Command prompt or Terminal at project root.

echo node_modules > .dockerignore

This creates the extension-less . prefixed file without any issue. Replace node_modules with the folder you want to exclude.

Answer 3

In my case, my Dockerfile contained an installation step, which produced the vendor directory (the PHP equivalent of node_modules). I then COPY this directory over to the final application image. Therefore, I could not put vendor in my .dockerignore. My solution was simply to delete the directory before performing composer install (the PHP equivalent of npm install).

FROM composer AS composer
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN rm -rf vendor \
    && composer install 

FROM richarvey/nginx-php-fpm
WORKDIR /var/www/html
COPY --from=composer /app .

This solution works and does not bloat the final image, but it is not ideal, because the vendor directory on the host is copied into the Docker context during the build process, which adds time.

Answer 4

Excluding node_modules from current directory

node_modules

Excluding node_modules in any immediate subdirectories

*/node_modules

Here is the official docs

Answer 5

For those using gcloud build:

gcloud build ignores .dockerignore and looks instead for .gcloudignore

Use:

cp .dockerignore .gcloudignore

Source

Answer 6

Adding .dockerignore works for me. One additional point Those who are trying this solution on Windows , windows will not let you create .dockerignore file (as it doesn't by default allows creating file starting with .)

To create such file starting with . on Windows, include an ending dot also, like : .dockerignore. and hit enter ( provided you have enabled view extension options from folder options )