How to exchange files between docker container and local filesystem? - docker

Question

I have a TypeScript code that reads the contents of a directory and has to delete them one by one at some intervals.
Everything works fine locally. I made a docker container for my code and wanted to achieve the same purpose, however, I realized that the directory contents are the same ones existed at the time of building the container.
As for my understanding, the connection between the docker container and the local file system is missing.
I have been wandering around bind and volume options, and I came across the following simple tutorial:
How To Share Data Between the Docker Container and the Host
According to the previous tutorial, theoretically, I would be able to achieve my goal:
If you make any changes to the ~/nginxlogs folder, you’ll be able to see them from inside the Docker container in real-time as well.
However, I followed exactly the same steps but still couldn't see the changes made locally reflected in the docker container, or vice versa.
My question is: How can I access my local file system from a docker container to read/write/delete files?
Update
This is my dockerfile
FROM ampervue/ffmpeg
RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
RUN apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y --force-yes \
nodejs; \
apt-get clean
RUN npm install -g fluent-ffmpeg
RUN rm -rf /usr/local/src
RUN apt-get autoremove -y; apt-get clean -y
WORKDIR /work
COPY package.json .
COPY . .
CMD ["node", "sizeCalculator.js"]

Answer 1

Easy way to volume mount on docker run command
docker run -it -v /<Source Dir>/:/<Destination Dir> <container_name> bash
Another way is using docker-compose.
Let's try it with docker-compose
put your dockerfile and docker-compose at the same location or dir
main focus
volumes:
- E:\dirToMap:/work
docker-compose.yaml
version: "3"
services:
ampervue:
build:
context: ./
image: <Image Name>
container_name: ampervueservice
volumes:
- E:\dirToMap:/vol1
ports:
- 8080:8080
And add volume in dockerfile
FROM ampervue/ffmpeg
RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
RUN apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y --force-yes \
nodejs; \
apt-get clean
RUN npm install -g fluent-ffmpeg
RUN rm -rf /usr/local/src
RUN apt-get autoremove -y; apt-get clean -y
WORKDIR /work
VOLUME /vol1
COPY package.json .
COPY . .
CMD ["node", "sizeCalculator.js"]
and run following command to up the container
docker-compose -f "docker-compose-sr.yml" up -d --build

Answer 2

At the examples below which come directly from the docs:
The --mount and -v examples below produce the same result. You can't run them both unless you remove the devtest container after running the first one.
with -v:
docker run -d -it --name devtest -v "$(pwd)"/target:/app nginx:latest
with --mount:
docker run -d -it --name devtest --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/target,target=/app nginx:latest
This is where you have to type your 2 different paths:
-v /path/from/your/host:/path/inside/the/container
<-------host------->:<--------container------->
--mount type=bind,source=/path/from/your/host,target=/path/inside/the/container
<-------host-------> <--------container------->