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By default all files created inside a container are stored on a writablecontainer layer. This means that:
- The data doesn't persist when that container no longer exists, and it can bedifficult to get the data out of the container if another process needs it.
- A container's writable layer is tightly coupled to the host machinewhere the container is running. You can't easily move the data somewhere else.
- Writing into a container's writable layer requires astorage driver to manage thefilesystem. The storage driver provides a union filesystem, using the Linuxkernel. This extra abstraction reduces performance as compared to usingdata volumes, which write directly to the host filesystem.
Docker has two options for containers to store files in the host machine, sothat the files are persisted even after the container stops: volumes, andbind mounts. If you're running Docker on Linux you can also use a tmpfs mount.If you're running Docker on Windows you can also use a named pipe.
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Keep reading for more information about these two ways of persisting data.
Choose the right type of mount
No matter which type of mount you choose to use, the data looks the same fromwithin the container. It is exposed as either a directory or an individual filein the container's filesystem.
An easy way to visualize the difference among volumes, bind mounts, and tmpfs
mounts is to think about where the data lives on the Docker host.
Volumes are stored in a part of the host filesystem which is managed byDocker (
/var/lib/docker/volumes/
on Linux). Non-Docker processes should notmodify this part of the filesystem. Volumes are the best way to persist datain Docker.Bind mounts may be stored anywhere on the host system. They may even beimportant system files or directories. Non-Docker processes on the Docker hostor a Docker container can modify them at any time.
tmpfs
mounts are stored in the host system's memory only, and are neverwritten to the host system's filesystem.
More details about mount types
Volumes: Created and managed by Docker. You can create avolume explicitly using the
docker volume create
command, or Docker cancreate a volume during container or service creation.When you create a volume, it is stored within a directory on the Dockerhost. When you mount the volume into a container, this directory is what ismounted into the container. This is similar to the way that bind mounts work,except that volumes are managed by Docker and are isolated from the corefunctionality of the host machine.
A given volume can be mounted into multiple containers simultaneously. When norunning container is using a volume, the volume is still available to Dockerand is not removed automatically. You can remove unused volumes using
dockervolume prune
.When you mount a volume, it may be named or anonymous. Anonymousvolumes are not given an explicit name when they are first mounted into acontainer, so Docker gives them a random name that is guaranteed to be uniquewithin a given Docker host. Besides the name, named and anonymous volumesbehave in the same ways.
Volumes also support the use of volume drivers, which allow you to storeyour data on remote hosts or cloud providers, among other possibilities.
Bind mounts: Available since the early days of Docker.Bind mounts have limited functionality compared to volumes. When you use abind mount, a file or directory on the host machine is mounted into acontainer. The file or directory is referenced by its full path on the hostmachine. The file or directory does not need to exist on the Docker hostalready. It is created on demand if it does not yet exist. Bind mounts arevery performant, but they rely on the host machine's filesystem having aspecific directory structure available. If you are developing new Dockerapplications, consider using named volumes instead. You can't useDocker CLI commands to directly manage bind mounts.
Bind mounts allow access to sensitive files
One side effect of using bind mounts, for better or for worse,is that you can change the host filesystem via processes running in acontainer, including creating, modifying, or deleting important systemfiles or directories. This is a powerful ability which can have securityimplications, including impacting non-Docker processes on the host system.
tmpfs mounts: A
tmpfs
mount is not persisted on disk, eitheron the Docker host or within a container. It can be used by a container duringthe lifetime of the container, to store non-persistent state or sensitiveinformation. For instance, internally, swarm services usetmpfs
mounts tomount secrets into a service's containers.named pipes: An
npipe
mount can be used for communication between the Docker host and a container. Common use case isto run a third-party tool inside of a container and connect to the Docker Engine API using a named pipe.
Bind mounts and volumes can both be mounted into containers using the -v
or--volume
flag, but the syntax for each is slightly different. For tmpfs
mounts, you can use the --tmpfs
flag. We recommend using the --mount
flagfor both containers and services, for bind mounts, volumes, or tmpfs
mounts,as the syntax is more clear.
Good use cases for volumes
Volumes are the preferred way to persist data in Docker containers and services.Some use cases for volumes include:
Sharing data among multiple running containers. If you don't explicitly createit, a volume is created the first time it is mounted into a container. Whenthat container stops or is removed, the volume still exists. Multiplecontainers can mount the same volume simultaneously, either read-write orread-only. Volumes are only removed when you explicitly remove them.
When the Docker host is not guaranteed to have a given directory or filestructure. Volumes help you decouple the configuration of the Docker hostfrom the container runtime.
When you want to store your container's data on a remote host or a cloudprovider, rather than locally.
Overnight 2 roblox. When you need to back up, restore, or migrate data from one Dockerhost to another, volumes are a better choice. You can stop containers usingthe volume, then back up the volume's directory(such as
/var/lib/docker/volumes/
).When your application requires high-performance I/O on Docker Desktop. Volumesare stored in the Linux VM rather than the host, which means that the reads and writeshave much lower latency and higher throughput.
When your application requires fully native file system behavior on DockerDesktop. For example, a database engine requires precise control over diskflushing to guarantee transaction durability. Volumes are stored in the LinuxVM and can make these guarantees, whereas bind mounts are remoted to macOS orWindows, where the file systems behave slightly differently.
Good use cases for bind mounts
In general, you should use volumes where possible. Bind mounts are appropriatefor the following types of use case:
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Sharing configuration files from the host machine to containers. This is howDocker provides DNS resolution to containers by default, by mounting
/etc/resolv.conf
from the host machine into each container.Sharing source code or build artifacts between a development environment onthe Docker host and a container. For instance, you may mount a Maven
target/
directory into a container, and each time you build the Maven project on theDocker host, the container gets access to the rebuilt artifacts.If you use Docker for development this way, your production Dockerfile wouldcopy the production-ready artifacts directly into the image, rather thanrelying on a bind mount.
When the file or directory structure of the Docker host is guaranteed to beconsistent with the bind mounts the containers require.
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Good use cases for tmpfs mounts
tmpfs
mounts are best used for cases when you do not want the data to persisteither on the host machine or within the container. This may be for securityreasons or to protect the performance of the container when your applicationneeds to write a large volume of non-persistent state data.
Tips for using bind mounts or volumes
If you use either bind mounts or volumes, keep the following in mind:
If you mount an empty volume into a directory in the container in which filesor directories exist, these files or directories are propagated (copied)into the volume. Similarly, if you start a container and specify a volume whichdoes not already exist, an empty volume is created for you.This is a good way to pre-populate data that another container needs.
If you mount a bind mount or non-empty volume into a directory in the containerin which some files or directories exist, these files or directories areobscured by the mount, just as if you saved files into
/mnt
on a Linux hostand then mounted a USB drive into/mnt
. The contents of/mnt
would beobscured by the contents of the USB drive until the USB drive were unmounted.The obscured files are not removed or altered, but are not accessible while thebind mount or volume is mounted.
Next steps
- Learn more about volumes.
- Learn more about bind mounts.
- Learn more about tmpfs mounts.
- Learn more about storage drivers, whichare not related to bind mounts or volumes, but allow you to store data in acontainer's writable layer.