How to fix "The connection was reset" on nginx and docker - docker

Question

I use nginx inside a docker container and I'm unable to connect to it properly.
The error inside the browser is:
The connection was reset
if I try to curl inside the container I get:
/usr/share/nginx/html # curl localhost
curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 80: Connection refused
My Dockerfile:
FROM nginx:alpine
COPY ./default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
RUN chmod -R a+w /var/cache/nginx/ \
&& touch /var/run/nginx.pid \
&& chmod a+w /var/run/nginx.pid
WORKDIR /usr/share/nginx/html
COPY . .
EXPOSE 80
My command:
docker run -d -p 80:80 <mycontainer>
My default.conf:
server {
listen [::]:80;
sendfile on;
default_type application/octet-stream;
gzip on;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.";
gzip_min_length 256;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private auth;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
gzip_comp_level 9;
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
location / {
try_files $uri$args $uri$args/ /pointeuse/index.html;
}
}
This is my container inspect:
[
{
"Id": "sha256:b431c5a40e599a69a31f482d52ba3a971953bece09d7de1a83d3ff78bd08e79b",
"RepoTags": [
"test:latest"
],
"RepoDigests": [],
"Parent": "sha256:52a9dfb246091e9a6fedc6e7bdc7c701dd39638bd3889ae098bb97d519889c2f",
"Comment": "",
"Created": "2020-05-23T12:27:30.123757764Z",
"Container": "70cfa14de670aaf2c599385b1afbf5d5f4a155ce2e655031b1adcaa3654e5442",
"ContainerConfig": {
"Hostname": "70cfa14de670",
"Domainname": "",
"User": "",
"AttachStdin": false,
"AttachStdout": false,
"AttachStderr": false,
"ExposedPorts": {
"80/tcp": {}
},
"Tty": false,
"OpenStdin": false,
"StdinOnce": false,
"Env": [
"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin",
"NGINX_VERSION=1.17.10",
"NJS_VERSION=0.3.9",
"PKG_RELEASE=1"
],
"Cmd": [
"/bin/sh",
"-c",
"#(nop) ",
"EXPOSE 80"
],
"ArgsEscaped": true,
"Image": "sha256:52a9dfb246091e9a6fedc6e7bdc7c701dd39638bd3889ae098bb97d519889c2f",
"Volumes": null,
"WorkingDir": "/usr/share/nginx/html",
"Entrypoint": null,
"OnBuild": null,
"Labels": {
"maintainer": "NGINX Docker Maintainers <docker-maint#nginx.com>"
},
"StopSignal": "SIGTERM"
},
"DockerVersion": "19.03.9",
"Author": "",
"Config": {
"Hostname": "",
"Domainname": "",
"User": "",
"AttachStdin": false,
"AttachStdout": false,
"AttachStderr": false,
"ExposedPorts": {
"80/tcp": {}
},
"Tty": false,
"OpenStdin": false,
"StdinOnce": false,
"Env": [
"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin",
"NGINX_VERSION=1.17.10",
"NJS_VERSION=0.3.9",
"PKG_RELEASE=1"
],
"Cmd": [
"nginx",
"-g",
"daemon off;"
],
"ArgsEscaped": true,
"Image": "sha256:52a9dfb246091e9a6fedc6e7bdc7c701dd39638bd3889ae098bb97d519889c2f",
"Volumes": null,
"WorkingDir": "/usr/share/nginx/html",
"Entrypoint": null,
"OnBuild": null,
"Labels": {
"maintainer": "NGINX Docker Maintainers <docker-maint#nginx.com>"
},
"StopSignal": "SIGTERM"
},
"Architecture": "amd64",
"Os": "linux",
"Size": 31180356,
"VirtualSize": 31180356,
"GraphDriver": {
"Data": {
"LowerDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/462dd80fe58a733771808738b12b51fc08995c7a7f7b58c240404067e742fb13/diff:/var/lib/docker/overlay2/d91f7871375c57d25380a3f72afbe453cc3044ae6648037d7810c771ff34b873/diff:/var/lib/docker/overlay2/1b7177dbb104d4ad8da12fe2c0bf11e62d7c5a4e731572bf2677c3c0e576087f/diff:/var/lib/docker/overlay2/7f555e278efd118a189669ebf977d14e3ee0a9b1ac2440191bbcf77ceb693378/diff",
"MergedDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/72bac5710e111f45c9ef6cd0cddfae079c91bb007d9fa3fe79eda283f2bbf318/merged",
"UpperDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/72bac5710e111f45c9ef6cd0cddfae079c91bb007d9fa3fe79eda283f2bbf318/diff",
"WorkDir": "/var/lib/docker/overlay2/72bac5710e111f45c9ef6cd0cddfae079c91bb007d9fa3fe79eda283f2bbf318/work"
},
"Name": "overlay2"
},
"RootFS": {
"Type": "layers",
"Layers": [
"sha256:3e207b409db364b595ba862cdc12be96dcdad8e36c59a03b7b3b61c946a5741a",
"sha256:3810cc0c140fd3afda75475ae08152cd1a6643962a18cc51a2de1c061f01ed7b",
"sha256:9bb57ece8be2135a6f230901f9a66353f9d0f9134b36f85570b93bd812c9938b",
"sha256:b3fc9f22b63668bb906ccefb28113ec4b7aab6cbdd569c3cbccfbcd9f49a6ca1",
"sha256:9f2edf038c0c3a17430487323ef682150a2c7a4aade35f30b42b76f84b88ebdc"
]
},
"Metadata": {
"LastTagTime": "2020-05-23T14:27:30.168712086+02:00"
}
}
]

Answer 1

You are unable to reach your nginx container because you try to connect to it with ipv4 and in your configuration file you use an ipv6 syntax.
Change to listen 80.

Answer 2

Your dockerfile doesn't start the nginx service. You need to run nginx -g daemon off; Use this Dockerfile instead:
FROM nginx:alpine
COPY ./default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
RUN chmod -R a+w /var/cache/nginx/ \
&& touch /var/run/nginx.pid \
&& chmod a+w /var/run/nginx.pid
WORKDIR /usr/share/nginx/html
COPY . .
EXPOSE 80
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]