Copy files from host to docker container then commit and push

Question

I'm using docker in Ubuntu. During development phase I cloned all source code from Git in host, edit them in WebStorm, and them run with Node.js inside a docker container with -v /host_dev_src:/container_src so that I can test.

Then when I wanted to send them for testing: I committed the container and pushed a new version. But when I pulled and ran the image on the test machine, the source code was missing. That makes sense as in test machine there's no /host_src available.

My current workaround is to clone the source code on the test machine and run docker with -v /host_test_src:/container_src. But I'd like to know if it's possible to copy the source code directly into the container and avoid that manipulation. I'd prefer to just copy, paste and run the image file with the source code, especially since there's no Internet connection on our testing machines.

PS: Seems docker cp only supports copying file from container to host.

Answer 1

One solution is to have a git clone step in the Dockerfile which adds the source code into the image. During development, you can override this code with your -v argument to docker run so that you can make changes without rebuilding. When it comes to testing, you just check your changes in and build a new image. Now you have a fully standalone alone image for testing.

Note that if you have a VOLUME instruction in your Dockerfile, you will need to make sure it occurs after the git clone step.

The problem with this approach is that if you are using a compiled language, you only want your binaries to live in the final image. In this case, the git clone needs to be replaced with some code that either fetches or compiles the binaries.