ReactJs development on docker container

It's a known limitation for Windows (don't worry too much, there is a good workaround)

This is a known limitation for Docker on Windows host. Here is what the Docker's documentation says about the problem:

inotify on shared drives does not work

Currently, inotify does not work on Docker for Windows. This will become evident, for example, when an application needs to read/write to a container across a mounted drive. Instead of relying on filesystem inotify, we recommend using polling features for your framework or programming language.

  • Workaround for nodemon and Node.js - If you are using nodemon with Node.js, try the fallback polling mode described here: nodemon isn’t restarting node applications
  • Docker for Windows issue on GitHub - See the issue Inotify on shared drives does not work

The workaround

However, the workaround is to use a polling mechanism:

  • chokidar - A neat wrapper around node.js fs.watch / fs.watchFile / fsevents.
  • nodemon - Monitor for any changes in your node.js application and automatically restart the server - perfect for development.
  • webpack - If watching does not work for you, try out polling option. Watching does not work with NFS and machines in VirtualBox.
  • etc ...

Complete Docker & React setup

Just for your case I've started react-create-app in a Docker container and livereload feature works perfect. The gotcha is to enable chokidar polling by creating .env configuration file.

Here are my configurations (inspired by @haluvibe):

Dockerfile

FROM node:6.9.4

# Prepare app directory
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app/

# Install dependencies
COPY package.json /usr/src/app/
RUN npm install --silent

ADD . /usr/src/app/

EXPOSE 3000
CMD [ "npm", "start" ]

docker-compose.yml

version: "2"

services:
  frontend:
    container_name: "boilerplate"
    build: .
    environment:
      env_file: .env
      NODE_ENV: development
    ports:
      - '3000:3000'
    volumes:
      - .:/usr/src/app

.env

CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING=true

Scripts

  • docker-compose up -d - Start your project and it will be available at http://localhost:3000.
  • docker-compose run --rm boilerplate /bin/bash - Access your container.

some times livereload dose not work when the app is running inside a container, If the project runs inside a virtual machine such as (a Vagrant provisioned) VirtualBox, create an .env file in your project directory if it doesn’t exist, and add CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING=true to it. This ensures that the next time you run npm start, the watcher uses the polling mode, as necessary inside a VM.

Tags:

Docker

Reactjs

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