A Docker dev config for Ruby on Rails

I use Docker for all my client work, and most of my personal projects too. I love it. It’s saved me a ton of money because it uses so much less RAM than Vagrant — what I had been using.

Benefits of this config

  • Just docker-compose up to set up and launch the dev environment (Yep, a one-liner like vagrant up – that’s the goal.)
  • One easy-to-install dependency to get coding on a new computer: Docker. (Versus two complex ones when using Vagrant.)
  • A true development-oriented config: Source code is mounted so that changes in the container appear on the host, and vice-versa.
  • Fast re-builds because the DOCKERFILE is written to help Docker cache the images.
  • Syncing with the Postgres startup delay.
  • All the crappy little dependencies installed.
  • No weird hacks.

Now the three files, followed by instructions and my comments. Or jump right to the GitHub Repo.

version: '3.2'
services:
db:
image: postgres
web:
build: .
volumes:
- type: bind
source: .
target: /app
ports:
- "3000:3000"
depends_on:
- db
command:
- ./run.sh
view raw docker-compose.yml hosted with ❤ by GitHub
# Ruby on Rails Development Environment
FROM ruby:2.5.0
# Set up Linux
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y build-essential inotify-tools libpq-dev nodejs postgresql-client
WORKDIR /app
EXPOSE 3000
view raw Dockerfile hosted with ❤ by GitHub
#!/bin/sh
set -e
# Ensure the app's dependencies are installed
echo "bundle install --without=production..."
bundle install --without=production
# Wait for Postgres to become available.
echo "Checking for Postgres..."
until psql -h db -U "postgres" -c '\q' 2>/dev/null; do
>&2 echo "Postgres is unavailable - sleeping"
sleep 1
done
echo "Postgres is available: continuing with database setup..."
# Potentially Set up the database
echo "bundle exec rake db:setup..."
bin/rails db:setup
# Start the web server
echo "bin/rails s -p 3000 -b '0.0.0.0'..."
bin/rails s -p 3000 -b '0.0.0.0'
view raw run.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

How to Dockerize a Rails app

  1. Copy the three config files to the root folder of an existing Rails project. Make run.sh executable, e.g. chmod +x run.sh.
  2. Edit your development database settings to connect to Postgres at host db, username postgres, password is an empty string.
  3. Spin it up with docker-compose up.

Your Rails app should be up and running at http://localhost:3000. You should see someething like this:

Screen Shot 2018-02-02 at 8.58.05 PM

Now a little about this configuration

It’s nearly identical to my Phoenix/Docker config, and so I’ve written a nearly identical blog post.

These files are the result of several hours spent fine-tuning it and going through the Docker file references. I wanted a “online-liner” container-based dev environment; a Docker equivalent of vagrant up. To get this, I read a ton of example configs and got a boost from this excellent post by Alex Kleissner. He had the nice idea of a run.sh script to do some things like synchronize Phoenix startup and Postgres.

Also available as a GitHub repo.

2 Comments

  1. Alex J. Ahraus (@fanaugen) says:
    February 8, 2018 at 8:07 am

    The second sub-heading should probably say “existing Rails app”, not “Phoenix app”

    Reply
    1. Robb says:
      February 8, 2018 at 1:02 pm

      Hah! Thanks. Yeah, I adapted it from my Phoenix dev setup.

      Reply

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