40

When I try to build a container using docker-compose like so 

nginx:
  build: ./nginx
  ports:
    - "5000:80"

the COPY instructions isnt working when my Dockerfile simply looks like this

FROM nginx

#Expose port 80
EXPOSE 80

COPY html /usr/share/nginx/test

#Start nginx server
RUN service nginx restart

What could be the problem?

Leon
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3 Answers3

78

It seems that when using the docker-compose command it saves an intermediate container that it doesnt show you and constantly reruns that never updating it correctly. Sadly the documentation regarding something like this is poor. The way to fix this is to build it first with no cache and then up it like so 

docker-compose build --no-cache
docker-compose up -d
Leon
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    Yes, it needs to be fixed, see https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/693 and https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/12 – dnephin Feb 07 '16 at 17:32
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    @Kwhitejr has that still not been fixed?! – Leon Oct 31 '18 at 04:13
  • The problem still exists for me. Not sure if it matters, but it worked without using no-cache option. – Roger Feb 28 '19 at 02:22
  • Darn, I was working for hours and this was the issue. (My issue was my Dockerfile copied the files when running it by docker build but not when using docker composer) Thanks man you saved my day! – master Jun 12 '19 at 11:01
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    For a non-composed container: `docker build --no-cache .` – Lucas Nov 04 '19 at 17:36
  • `docker-compose up --build` – Yehouda Nov 14 '22 at 15:13
20

I had the same issue and a one liner that does it for me is :

docker-compose up --build --remove-orphans --force-recreate

  • --build does the biggest part of the job and triggers the build.
  • --remove-orphans is useful if you have changed the name of one of your services. Otherwise, you might have a warning leftover telling you about the old, now wrongly named service dangling around.
  • --force-recreate is a little drastic but will force the recreation of the containers.

Reference: https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/up/

Warning I could do this on my project because I was toying around with really small container images. Recreating everything, everytime, could take significant time depending on your situation.

Philippe Boulanger
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1

If you need to make docker-compose to copy files every time on up command I suggest declaring a volumes option to your service in the compose.yml file. It will persist your data and also will copy files from that folder into the container.

More info here volume-configuration-reference

server:
    image: server
    container_name: server
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: server.Dockerfile
    env_file:
      - .envs/.server
    working_dir: /app
    volumes:
      - ./server_data:/app  # <= here it is
    ports:
      - "9999:9999"
    command: ["command", "to", "run", "the", "server", "--some-options"]

Optionally, you can add the following section to the end of the compose.yml file. It will keep that folder persisted then. The data in that folder will not be removed after the docker-compose stop command or the docker-compose down command. To remove the folder you will need to run the down command with an additional flag -v:

docker-compose down -v

For example, including volumes:

services:
  server:
    image: server
    container_name: server
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: server.Dockerfile
    env_file:
      - .envs/.server
    working_dir: /app
    volumes:
      - ./server_data:/app  # <= here it is
    ports:
      - "9999:9999"
    command: ["command", "to", "run", "the", "server", "--some-options"]

volumes:  # at the root level, the same as services
  server_data:
Davion
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