Wrong permissions in volume in Docker container

Question

I run Docker 1.8.1 in OSX 10.11 via an local docker-machine VM.

I have the following docker-compose.yml:

web:
    build: docker/web
    ports:
        - 80:80
        - 8080:8080
    volumes:
        - $PWD/cms:/srv/cms

My Dockerfile looks like this:

FROM alpine

# install nginx and php
RUN apk add --update \
    nginx \
    php \
    php-fpm \
    php-pdo \
    php-json \
    php-openssl \
    php-mysql \
    php-pdo_mysql \
    php-mcrypt \
    php-ctype \
    php-zlib \
    supervisor \
    wget \
    curl \
    && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*

RUN mkdir -p /etc/nginx && \
    mkdir -p /etc/nginx/sites-enabled && \
    mkdir -p /var/run/php-fpm && \
    mkdir -p /var/log/supervisor && \
    mkdir -p /srv/cms

RUN rm /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
ADD nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
ADD thunder.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/thunder.conf

ADD nginx-supervisor.ini /etc/supervisor.d/nginx-supervisor.ini

WORKDIR "/srv/cms"
VOLUME "/srv/cms"

EXPOSE 80
EXPOSE 8080
EXPOSE 22

CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord"]

When I run everything with docker-compose up everything works fine, my volumes are mounted at the correct place.

But the permissions in the mounted folder /srv/cms look wrong. The user is "1000" and the group is "50" in the container. The webserver could not create any files in this folder, because it runs with the user "root".

Answer 1

1) General idea: Docker it is not Vagrant. It is wrong to put two different services into one container! Split it into two different images and link them together. Don't do this shitty image.

Check and follow https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/eng-image/dockerfile_best-practices/

• Avoid installing unnecessary packages
• Run only one process per container
• Minimize the number of layers

If you do it:

• you will remove your supervisor
• your can decrease numbers of layers

It should be something like (example):

FROM alpine

RUN apk add --update \
    wget \
    curl
RUN apk add --update \
    php \
    php-fpm \
    php-pdo \
    php-json \
    php-openssl \
    php-mysql \
    php-pdo_mysql \
    php-mcrypt \
    php-ctype \
    php-zlib
RUN usermod -u 1000 www-data
RUN rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*

EXPOSE 9000

For nginx it is enough to use default image and mount configs. docker-compose file like:

nginx:
  image: nginx
  container_name: site.dev
  volumes:
    - ./myconf1.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/myconf1.conf
    - ./myconf2.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/myconf2.conf
    - $PWD/cms:/srv/cms
  ports:
    - "80:80"
  links:
   - phpfpm
phpfpm:
  build: ./phpfpm/
  container_name: phpfpm.dev
  command: php5-fpm -F --allow-to-run-as-root
  volumes:
    - $PWD/cms:/srv/cms

2) Add RUN usermod -u 1000 www-data into Dockerfile for php container, it will fix problem with permission.

Answer 2

For alpine version you need to use:

RUN apk add shadow && usermod -u 1000 www-data && groupmod -g 1000 www-data