method using built-in docker cp
Use docker cp [containername]:[path] [host-path] to e.g. copy data out - reverse the params to copy data in - it works just like scp. To get shell access to the data you can just attach to the running container.
pro: nothing additional needed in docker compose
con: no integration (that I know of) with a file explorer GUI like WinSCP. need to do a terminal based copy each time a file is to be updated between host and container.
method using a dockerized ssh server
pro: can integrate with any tool that can talk over ssh/sftp
con: needs additional setup
The following approach starts an ssh server within a service, setup with docker-compse such that it automatically starts up and uses public key encryption between host and container for authorization. This way, data can be uploaded/downloaded via scp or sftp.
The full docker-compose.yml for a node.js (keystone) + mongodb app is below, together with some documentation on how to use ssh service:
version: '3'
services:
foo:
build: .
image: localhost.localdomain/${repository_name}:${tag}
container_name: ${container_name}
ports:
- "3333:3333"
links:
- mongodb-foo
depends_on:
- mongodb-foo
- sshd
volumes:
- "${host_log_directory}:/var/log/app"
mongodb-foo:
container_name: mongodb-${repository_name}
image: "mongo:3.4-jessie"
volumes:
- mongodata-foo:/data/db
expose:
- '27017'
#since mongo data on Windows only works within HyperV virtual disk (as of 2019-4-3), the following allows upload/download of mongo data
#setup: you need to copy your ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub into $DOCKER_DATA_DIR/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, then run this service again
#download (all mongo data): scp -r -P 2222 user@localhost:/data/mongodb [target-dir within /c/]
#upload (all mongo data): scp -r -P 2222 [source-dir within /c/] user@localhost:/data/mongodb
sshd:
image: maltyxx/sshd
volumes:
- mongodata-foo:/data/mongodb
- $DOCKER_DATA_DIR/.ssh/id_rsa.pub:/home/user/.ssh/keys/id_rsa.pub:ro
ports:
- "2222:22"
command: user::1001
#please note: using a named volume like this for mongo is necessary on Windows rather than mounting an NTFS directory.
#mongodb (and probably most other databases) are not compatible with windows native data directories due ot permissions issues.
#this means that there is no direct access to this data, it needs to be dumped elsewhere if you want to reimport something.
#it will however be persisted as long as you don't delete the HyperV virtual drive that docker host is using.
#on Linux and Docker for Mac it is not an issue, named volumes are directly accessible from host.
volumes:
mongodata-foo:
note: for a fully working example, before any docker-compose call the following script needs to be run:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -o errexit
set -o pipefail
set -o nounset
working_directory="$(pwd)"
host_repo_dir="${working_directory}"
repository_name="$(basename ${working_directory})"
branch_name="$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
container_name="${repository_name}-${branch_name}"
host_log_directory="${DOCKER_DATA_DIR}/log/${repository_name}"
tag="${branch_name}"
export host_repo_dir
export repository_name
export container_name
export tag
export host_log_directory
