NodeJS + Forever + Docker configuration doesn't work

Question

I have a following Dockerfile :

FROM    debian:stable

RUN      apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y
RUN      apt-get install -y curl
RUN      curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | bash -
RUN      apt-get install -y nodejs
RUN      npm install forever -g

# App
ADD . /api
# Install app dependencies
RUN cd /api; npm install

EXPOSE  8080
CMD ["forever", "start", "/api/index.js", "8080"]

When I try to run docker run -p 8080:8080 my-app@1.0.0 I get the following message:

warn: --minUptime not set. Defaulting to: 1000ms

warn: --spinSleepTime not set. Your script will exit if it does not stay up for at least 1000ms

info: Forever processing file: /api/index.js

and docker container stops.

What do I need to do to container work?

Answer 1

Docker exits as soon as the given command is finished. forever start SCRIPT is starting the script as a daemon in the background, and then exiting. That's why your container stops.

To make it work, you should start forever in the foreground by using forever SCRIPT . The CMD in your Dockerfile should be:

CMD ["forever", "/api/index.js", "8080"]