Launching a Project in a Container

Instead of running yarn install and yarn start on the host, you can run the following command in your project's root directory to launch a project in a container:

docker run \
--rm \
-it \
-v $PWD:$PWD \
-w $PWD \
-p 3000:3000 \
node \
/bin/sh -c "yarn install && yarn start -h 0.0.0.0"

Alternatively, you can use the command below, which replaces $PWD with pwd:

docker run \
--rm \
-it \
-v `pwd`:`pwd` \
-w `pwd` \
-p 3000:3000 \
node \
/bin/sh -c "yarn install && yarn start -h 0.0.0.0"

This command executes a Docker container and runs the yarn install && yarn start -h 0.0.0.0 command inside it.

The advantage of this command is that it doesn't require you to build an image for your project first. Instead, it uses the Docker image node as the base image, installs dependencies using Yarn, and starts a web application.

Detailed explanation:

docker run \

# --rm: auto-removes the container when it exits
--rm \

# -it: allocates a pseudo-TTY and keeps stdin open 
# so that you can interact with the container's command line
# same as -t -i
-it \

# -v: binds mount a volume
# in this case, it mounts the current working directory ($PWD)
# to the same directory in the container,
# allowing the container to access your project's files
# same as `pwd`:`pwd`
-v $PWD:$PWD \

# -w: working directory inside the container
# commands will be executed inside the directory given
# in this case, it sets the working directory in the container
# to the current working directory
# same as `pwd`
-w $PWD \

# -p: publishes a container's port(s) to the host
# in this case, it maps the host's port 3000 to the container's port 3000
-p 3000:3000 \

# node: the base image to use
node \

# /bin/sh -c: specifies the command to run in the container
# It starts a shell (`/bin/sh`) and runs the yarn commands

# yarn install: installs dependencies specified in `package.json`
# yarn start -h 0.0.0.0: starts the app on port 3000, accessible from any IP address
/bin/sh -c "yarn install && yarn start -h 0.0.0.0"

-v and -w flags

With the -v flag set to $PWD:$PWD, any files in your host's current working directory will be accessible from inside the container at the same path.

Therefore, the -w flag is also set to $PWD, so that the container's working directory is the same as the host's current working directory.

If you switch your working directory on the host after you've started the container with the -v and -w flags, the changes will be reflected inside the container as well.

According to the Docker documentation about this flag combination:

The -v flag mounts the current working directory into the container. The -w lets the command being executed inside the current working directory, by changing into the directory to the value returned by pwd. So this combination executes the command using the container, but inside the current working directory.