--- title: Bitovi Academy - Volumes and Local Development description: Streamline local development with bind mounts. --- - ![AI implementation](https://www.bitovi.com/hubfs/AIConsultingIcon.svg) [AI implementation](https://www.bitovi.com/services/ai-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - ![Systems engineering](https://www.bitovi.com/hubfs/icon%20-%20backend.svg) [Systems engineering](https://www.bitovi.com/services/systems-engineering-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - ![Project management](https://www.bitovi.com/hubfs/icon%20-%20PM.svg) [Project management](https://www.bitovi.com/services/agile-project-management-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - ![Product design](https://www.bitovi.com/hubfs/icon%20-%20design.svg) [Product design](https://www.bitovi.com/services/product-design-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - ![Frontend development](https://www.bitovi.com/hubfs/icon%20-%20frontend.svg) [Frontend development](https://www.bitovi.com/services/frontend-development-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - [View more → ](https://www.bitovi.com/digital-consulting-services?hsLang=en-us) We're Experts in... - [JavaScript](https://www.bitovi.com/services/frontend/javascript-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - [AI training](https://www.bitovi.com/ai-training-for-software-engineers?hsLang=en-us) - [Angular](https://www.bitovi.com/services/frontend/angular-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - [Design Systems](https://www.bitovi.com/services/axure-figma-migration?hsLang=en-us) - [React](https://www.bitovi.com/services/frontend/react-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - [Temporal](https://www.bitovi.com/services/backend/temporal-consulting?hsLang=en-us) - [React Native](https://www.bitovi.com/services/frontend/react-consulting/react-native?hsLang=en-us) - [Node.js](https://www.bitovi.com/services/backend/nodejs-consulting-1?hsLang=en-us) Showcase ![Yum! 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To test every code change, a developer would have to 1. Make the code change 2. Stop the container (`docker rm -f ...`) 3. Rebuild the image (`docker build ...`) 4. Run the container (`docker run ...`) In particular, rebuilding an image with `docker build` takes too long. We’re going to explore how to make things much more efficient. ## Volumes A Docker container has no built in persistence. Beyond the image itself, all other data is discarded when a container is destroyed. Without volumes, running databases or applications that require state would be impossible. Volumes provide a persistent storage mechanism that can be managed through Docker’s CLI. They can be shared between multiple containers and can be stored on remote hosts or cloud providers. The following creates a volume called `my-vol` and on container creation is mounted to the `/data` directory. As the application runs, the contents of `/data` are persisted in the volume so that when the container is destroyed, the data is not lost. ``` docker volume create my-vol docker run -v my-vol:/data my-image ``` The above commands create a volume called `my-vol` and on container creation is mounted to the `/data` directory. As the application runs, the contents of `/data` are persisted in the volume so that when the container is destroyed, the data is not lost. [Official Docs](https://docs.docker.com/storage/volumes/) ## Bind Mounts Bind mounts are similar to volumes, but in comparison have limited functionality. Instead of creating a named volume, the contents of a host machine’s directory can be mounted to a directory in a container. For example the following command will overwrite the contents of the `/data` directory in the container with the contents of `/Users/connor/data`. When the container is running, the contents are mirrored between the two locations regardless if a change originates from the container or the host machine. ``` docker run -v /Users/connor/data:/data my-image ``` The only catch is the host machine directory must be an absolute path. This can be worked around by using $PWD to print out the current working directory when creating a container. ``` docker run -v $PWD/data:/data my-image ``` [Official Docs](https://docs.docker.com/storage/bind-mounts/) ## Local Development The most common use case for bind mounts is in local development environments. Instead of rebuilding an image on every code change, we can mount our application’s `src/` directory to the `/app/src` directory of our container. Open a terminal at the root of your application and run ``` docker run --name my-container -p 8000:8000 -d -v $PWD/src:/app/src my-node-app:latest ``` Verify it’s working by going to `localhost:8000` in your browser. You should see `Hello World!`. Now open `src/index.js` and change line 6 from ``` res.send('Hello World!') ``` to ``` res.send('Hello Bitovi!') ``` save the file and refresh your browser. It should now say `Hello Bitovi!`. What’s happening is the nodemon process is watching the `src/` directory in the container for changes. Because our host-machine’s `src/` directory is mounted to the container’s `app/src/` directory (`-v $PWD/src:/app/src`), when we save the change to `index.js`, it is replicated in the container causing nodemon to restart the server. We can see this by following the container’s log with the `-f` flag: ``` $ docker logs -f my-container > bitovi-academy-app@1.0.0 start > nodemon src/index.js [nodemon] 2.0.6 [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs` [nodemon] watching path(s): *.* [nodemon] watching extensions: js,mjs,json [nodemon] starting `node src/index.js` Example app listening at http://localhost:8000 [nodemon] restarting due to changes... [nodemon] starting `node src/index.js` Example app listening at http://localhost:8000 ``` This approach means we only need to build an image once ###### On this page... ###### Get help If you need [help](https://discord.gg/J7ejFsZnJ4) with an exercise, please reach out to us on [Discord](https://discord.gg/J7ejFsZnJ4) If you find a bug, please [create an issue](https://github.com/bitovi/academy/issues/new) or email [contact@bitovi.com](mailto:contact@bitovi.com?Subject=Training%20Suggestion) ## Join the Bitovi Newsletter Do you want to receive updates about new Bitovi Academy courses, Bitovi open source projects, and dev community news? If so, please provide your email. 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