How to share folders with docker containers on OSX

docker-osx-shared-folders.rst

How to share a folder with a docker container on OSX

Mounting shared folders between OSX and the docker container is tricky due to the intermediate boot2docker VM. You can't use the usual docker -v option as the docker server knows nothing about the OSX filesystem - it can only mount folders from the boot2docker filesystem. Fortunately, you can work around this using SSHFS.

Install sshfs on the boot2docker machine:

$ boot2docker ssh
docker@boot2docker:~$ tce-load -wi sshfs-fuse

and create a folder to mount to:

docker@boot2docker:~$ mkdir ~/osx

Ensure that 'Remote Login' is enabled in 'System Preferences > Sharing' and make a note of your host IP address.

Now run sshfs on the boot2docker VM to mount a folder from your host machine:

docker@boot2docker:~$ sudo sshfs $username@$ipaddress:/Users/$username/ /home/docker/osx/

replacing $username and $ipaddress as appropriate. You'll have to enter your password.

Now you can run a docker container (using the docker client on your host machine) and mount a local folder (using the path to it on the boot2docker VM), eg:

$ docker run -it -v /home/docker/osx/somefolder:/opt/somefolder ubuntu bash

and any updates made within your local folder will be immediately visible within the container.

Largely taken from the comments here: https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/issues/188

It's worth noting here that if you're ssh'd into the boot2docker VM as the docker user, after running the sshfs command above if you try and ls -la on the docker home dir to test that your mount worked you won't have access:

docker@boot2docker:~$ ll /home/docker/
ls: /home/docker/osx: Permission denied
total 4
----------    1 docker   staff           29 Jan  1  1970 boot2docker, please format-me

So if you sudo -s you'll get some love:

docker@boot2docker:~$ sudo -s
root@boot2docker:/home/docker# ls -la
total 20
drwxr-sr-x    5 docker   staff          180 Jun 13 10:26 . 
drwxrwxr-x    3 root     staff           60 Jun 13 10:26 ..
-rw-rw-r--    1 docker   staff          307 Jun 13 10:50 .ash_history
-rw-r--r--    1 docker   staff          446 Jun 13 10:26 .ashrc
drwxr-sr-x    3 docker   staff           60 Jun 13 10:26 .local
-rw-r--r--    1 docker   staff          920 Jun 13 10:26 .profile
drwx--S---    2 docker   staff           80 Jan  1  1970 .ssh
----------    1 docker   staff           29 Jan  1  1970 boot2docker, please format-me
drwxrwxr-x    1 10133    10000         2006 Jun 13 10:46 osx

The permissions on the mounted folder are sweet as for mounting it as a volume with docker though.

Party time.

for whatever reason, i am not able to ssh back to my host machine. i do have ssh enabled there, and in os x, i'm able to ssh to localhost. trying to ssh back to my host machine's IP address on vboxnet0 leaves ssh in a "connecting" state. telnet 22 also seems to hang in a connecting state. not sure what's going on. any ideas?

Works as promised.

note: boot2docker automatically mounts /Users now this solution isn't needed anymore. just go into boot2docker instance and ls /Users

+1 @crucialfelix - thank you!

Thanks @crucialfelix - I was able to mount quickly like this:

run -it -v /Users:/Users imagename bash

Hi all,

I got an
read: Connection reset by peer

when i enter my password any ideas ?

Thx

Is the information provided by @crucialfelix still true? We are trying to set this up on a mac, but /Users is definitely not mounted.

Make sure you're running the latest boot2docker v1.7.0

tce-load -wi sshfs-fuse Produces the following error for me :(

Downloading: sshfs-fuse.tcz
Connecting to repo.tinycorelinux.net (89.22.99.37:80)
wget: server returned error: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
md5sum: sshfs-fuse.tcz.md5.txt: No such file or directory
Error on sshfs-fuse.tcz

Has same issue:

docker@default:~$ tce-load -wi sshfs-fuse

Downloading: sshfs-fuse.tcz
Connecting to repo.tinycorelinux.net (89.22.99.37:80)
wget: server returned error: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
md5sum: sshfs-fuse.tcz.md5.txt: No such file or directory
Error on sshfs-fuse.tcz

Maybe because I have latest versions:

Boot2Docker version 1.8.1, build master : 7f12e95
Docker version 1.8.1, build d12ea79

sudo sshfs -o allow_other user@myserver:/home/user/myprojects ~/mount/myprojects

need add allow_other, or noroot user cant have permissio

but when i restart boot2docker ,
sshfs : command not found
why?

@codeinthehole it's still necessary or the new docker-machine provide it? I'm trying to get hot-reload (NodeJS) with PM2 or Nodemon. Cheers!

404 for the sshfs-fuse install here as well. Getting a bit irritated by how much work this is, simply to get a folder mounted

Isn't this page to be updated?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30040708/how-to-mount-local-volumes-in-docker-machine/32030385#32030385

or this

https://medium.com/@brentkearney/docker-on-mac-os-x-9793ac024e94#.evbpfdfv6

With native OSX app, it can be done easily as follows,

To pull a new docker image (optional step)
docker pull ubuntu

Make volume share as below,
docker run -t -i -v $(pwd):/home/shared ubuntu /bin/bash

Agreed this worked for me
docker run -it -v /Volumes/volname:/volname image-id /bin/bash

How about mounting a volume from a different docker-machine to a local docker host? Such as a docker-machine running in digitalocean droplet to my macbook?

Thanks @fyddaben @codeinthehole: it works for me

Hi Guys, I did the inverse and worked faster with less steps to get it working:

https://github.com/DanZeuss/DockerOnMacOS