canfeit / meteor-dev-docker

A Dockerfile for building a Meteor container that can be used for development.

meteor-dev

A Dockerfile for building a Meteor development container.

Revisions

2017-01-21 parameterize build

Added the following build arguments:

• APP_PACKAGES - allow additional software packages during build (e.g., imagemagick)
• APP_LOCALE=en_US - allow different locale for log messages
• APP_CHARSET=UTF-8 - allow different charset for log messages
• APP_USER=app - allow a different username for the app user
• APP_USER_DIR=/home/app - allow a different home directory for the app user

Added the following environment variables:

• APP_PORT=3000 - allow a different username for the meteor user
• APP_ROOT=/app - allow a different app root (changes meteor volume)

Changed the default working directory to /app.

2016-11-15 add software packages so that meteor npm install can build npm modules

Updated to Meteor version 1.4.2.3.

Added python and build-essential packages, in case npm needs them to rebuild node modules.

Now, npm install --save bcrypt works.

TL;DR

Use the following bash alias to run meteor from the command-line using the current direcotry as the application source:

alias app='docker run -it --rm --name=app -v $PWD:/app -p 3000:3000 golden/meteor-dev'

Here's an example of the alias in use:

app create new-meteor-app
cd new-meteor-app
app npm install
app

Note: When interrupted using ctrl-C, meteor will restart, so use the docker stop app command to shutdown the server.

Run Meteor using a prebuilt docker container

Download the golden/meteor-dev pre-built container from Docker Hub.

docker pull golden/meteor-dev

Run meteor using the application source code in the /path/to/meteor/app directory.

docker run -it --rm --name app -p 3000:3000 -v /path/to/meteor/app:/app golden/meteor-dev

The app is now accessible on port 3000 of the localhost (http://localhost:3000).

The app can be stopped using the docker stop app command.

Using the meteor-dev container

When changes are made to the source code of the meteor application in the local directory (/path/to/meteor/app/), the meteor-dev container automatically updates the running application. The application changes are seen immediately in the browser, just as if meteor were installed locally.

You can check on the status of the meteor container by using the docker ps command.

The meteor server will attempt to restart when interrupted usng ctrl-C, so use docker stop to shutdown the server.

Cleanup

The meteor image is stateless and can be automatically removed when stopped by using the --rm docker command switch.

Each time you use docker run to start Meteor without the --rm switch, a new container with a fresh install of meteor is created. Each of these containers consumes disk space.

You can clean up stopped containers by using the docker container prune command.

You can clean up unused volumes by using the docker volume prune command.

References

• Docker
• Meteor