How to build a Docker container with a running MySQL?

Question

My goal is to have a docker container that has a running MySQL service. So each time when I start container the database is in the initial state and MySQL is running. Almost everything is fine but when I start the container the MySQL service is not running. Every time in the console I have to start it like this: service mysql start. Here are the steps how I build and run the container:

$ docker build -t executer:mysql .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 15.87 kB
Sending build context to Docker daemon 
Step 0 : FROM debian:wheezy
#
# ... Many steps without error
#
Step 17 : RUN mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr/ --ldata=/var/lib/mysql/
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 1c71bf4524f0
Step 18 : RUN service mysql start
 ---> Running in b4643765b79b

......
MySQL Community Server 5.6.24 is started.
 ---> ac26b749a3c0
Removing intermediate container b4643765b79b
Successfully built ac26b749a3c0 

$ docker run --rm -it executer:mysql /bin/bash
root@1d9208c19af0:/# mysql
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Cant connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (111)
root@1d9208c19af0:/# service mysql start
No directory, logging in with HOME=/
......
[info] MySQL Community Server 5.6.24 is started.
root@1d9208c19af0:/# mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1
Server version: 5.6.24 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> 

And here is the content of the Dockerfile:

FROM debian:wheezy

# add our user and group first to make sure their IDs get assigned consistently, regardless of whatever dependencies get added
RUN groupadd -r mysql && useradd -r -g mysql mysql

# FATAL ERROR: please install the following Perl modules before executing /usr/local/mysql/scripts/mysql_install_db:
# File::Basename
# File::Copy
# Sys::Hostname
# Data::Dumper
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y perl --no-install-recommends && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# gpg: key 5072E1F5: public key "MySQL Release Engineering <[email protected]>" imported
RUN apt-key adv --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys A4A9406876FCBD3C456770C88C718D3B5072E1F5

ENV MYSQL_MAJOR 5.6
ENV MYSQL_VERSION 5.6.24

RUN echo "deb http://repo.mysql.com/apt/debian/ wheezy mysql-${MYSQL_MAJOR}" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mysql.list

# the "/var/lib/mysql" stuff here is because the mysql-server postinst doesn't have an explicit way to disable the mysql_install_db codepath besides having a database already "configured" (ie, stuff in /var/lib/mysql/mysql)
# also, we set debconf keys to make APT a little quieter
RUN { \
        echo mysql-community-server mysql-community-server/data-dir select ''; \
        echo mysql-community-server mysql-community-server/root-pass password ''; \
        echo mysql-community-server mysql-community-server/re-root-pass password ''; \
        echo mysql-community-server mysql-community-server/remove-test-db select false; \
    } | debconf-set-selections \
    && apt-get update && apt-get install -y mysql-server="${MYSQL_VERSION}"* && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/mysql && mkdir -p /var/lib/mysql

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y procps

# comment out a few problematic configuration values
RUN sed -Ei 's/^(bind-address|log)/#&/' /etc/mysql/my.cnf

# VOLUME /var/lib/mysql
# Install database
ADD ./database.sql /var/db/database.sql

# Set Standard settings
ENV user student
ENV password secret
ENV url file:/var/db/database.sql
ENV right READ

# Install starting script
ADD ./start-database.sh /usr/local/bin/start-database.sh
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/start-database.sh

#EXPOSE 3306

RUN mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr/ --ldata=/var/lib/mysql/

RUN service mysql start

How should I change my Dockerfile to have a running MySQL service after running my container?

Answer 1

I tried your setup

see https://github.com/BITPlan/docker-stackoverflowanswers/tree/master/33299303

first I got

E: Version '5.6.24*' for 'mysql-server' was not found

which has nothing to do with your question but needs to be fixed. so i commented out most of your Dockerfile and added:

RUN apt-get install mysql-server-5.5

which gave: E: Unable to locate package mysql-server-5.5

this is distro specific so i changed the FROM line to

FROM ubuntu:14.04

which I am more familiar with

Then i modified the Dockerfile to change

RUN service mysql start

to

CMD service mysql start

as mentioned in the comment of michaelbahr and checked with

./run 

and

root@96ff34b4e0c0:/# service --status-all 2>&1 | grep mysql

showed:

[ ? ]  mysql

there you are - mysql runs. You might want to fix your Dockerfile accordingly.