GatsD - The GatsbyJS Project Dockerizer

Develop any GatsbyJS project without the need for dependency management on your local machine - beyond a working installation of Docker, of course.

Maintain all the conveniences and power of Gatsby without the need to download or maintain version consistency of anything global -- node, npm, yarn, gatsby-cli, vips, fftw or any other obscure global package.

If you already have all the global packages, stop worrying about managing them.

GatsD will work just as well for new and existing Gatsby sites.

How To Install

GatsD can be installed and used to create a new project, or it can be installed into an existing project. Either way, it's as simple as installing the gatsd/ directory and running a command to build your Docker container.

New Project

1. Create directory for new site and enter the new directory.

mkdir mysite
cd mysite

2. Download gatsd sub-directory into new site.

# For latest release
RELEASE=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/imburbank/gatsd/releases/latest | sed -n 's/"tag_name": "v\(.*\)",/\1/p' | tr -d ' ')
curl -L https://www.github.com/imburbank/gatsd/archive/v${RELEASE}.tar.gz | tar xzv gatsd-${RELEASE}/gatsd/ --strip=1

Releases can also be selected by version, such as RELEASE=0.3.5

3. Initialize Gatsby project with GatsD.

./gatsd/new https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-default

# To use the gatsby-start-default template, you can just run:
./gatsd/new

GatsD will build the Docker container and download the selected Gatsby starter template from github. By default, container will be tagged with the mysite name. If no site is passed as an argument to ./gatsd/new, then the https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-default template will be downloaded.

The project directory will be accessible from inside the container and any changes made to the project inside the container or on the local host will be visible to both.

Existing Project

1. Enter the site directory.

cd path/to/mysite/

2. Download gatsd sub-directory into existing site.

# For latest release
RELEASE=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/imburbank/gatsd/releases/latest | sed -n 's/"tag_name": "v\(.*\)",/\1/p' | tr -d ' ')
curl -L https://www.github.com/imburbank/gatsd/archive/v${RELEASE}.tar.gz | tar xzv gatsd-${RELEASE}/gatsd/ --strip=1

Releases can also be selected by version, such as RELEASE=0.3.3

3. Initialize GatsD.

./gatsd/new

GatsD will build the Docker container and initialize the node_nodules with yarn. By default, container will be tagged with the mysite name.

The project directory will be accessible from inside the container and any changes made to the project inside the container or on the local host will be visible to both.

GatsD Basics

You can continue to develop your Gatsby site with all the normal docker and gatsby commands, but the GatsD convenience wrapper is now available.

GatsD can be used from the local host machine.

# For gatsd commands
./gatsd/[command]

# To run all other commands inside the container
./gatsd/run [command]

GatsD also provide an easy way to enter the container

# Enter the container
./gatsd/run

# For gatsd commands inside container
gatsd [command]

# For all other command inside container
[command]

Using the GatsD CLI

GatsD's standard commands are wrappers to invoke Gatsby-CLI commands within the Gatsby-Docker container.

The following commands are available

• gatsd develop -- Will start a hot-reloading development environment accessible at http://0.0.0.0:8000.

• gatsd build -- Will invoke gatsby build inside the container to create an optimized production build of the site.

• gatsd serve -- Will start a local HTML server to serve the production site locally at http://localhost:8000.

• gatsd stage -- GatsD will invoke gatsd build and gatsd serve to stage a local production build of your site.

From Local Host Machine

Commands can be called from the local project directory using shortcuts to standard Gatsd commands:

./gatsd/[gatsd-command]

# Ex:
./gatsd/stage

Or sending commands directly into the container with run

./gatsd/run [any-command]

# Example running gatsd command in container without shortcut:
./gatsd/run gatsd stage

# Example of running any other command in container
./gatsd/run yarn add --dev eslint

From Inside the Container

You can also enter the container and issue any commands from inside.

To enter the container:

./gatsd/run

Once inside, you can interact with the container as if it were a normal machine.

To enter GatsD commands, use gatsd

gatsd [command]

# Ex:
gatsd develop

For all other commands, issue them normally

yarn install

yarn add gatsby-plugin-react

gatsby develop --help

Adding Local Node Modules

Adding local packages is simple. Call yarn as you would any other command and the node_modules will download to their usual place in the project directory shared between the host machine the the container.

From the host machine:

./gatsd/run yarn add [package]

From inside the guest container:

yarn add [package]

Calling docker directly

The commands provided for this docker image are for convenience only - they are not required. You can also use docker directly with this project.

The docker-build file is used to create a default container for this project. docker build can also be called directly (read the docker-build script for inspiration). For example:

# Build gatsd docker container with tag [tag-name] to current directory
docker build -f gatsd/Dockerfile -t [tag-name] .

# Ex:
docker build -f gatsd/Dockerfile -t mysite --build-arg SITE_NAME=mysite --build-arg GATSBY_PORT=8000 .

The docker run command can also be explicitly invoked (read the run script for inspiration). For example:

docker run -it -p [port] -u [user] -v [volume] [tag-name] [arguments]

# Ex: 
docker run \
	-it \
	--name mysite
	-p 8000:8000 \
	-u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
	-v $(pwd):/mysite \
	-w /mysite \
	mysite \
	gatsby develop -H 0.0.0.0

Notes For Windows Users

GatsD is generally working on Windows — with the following exceptions/limitations:

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Windows compatibility has only been tested using Windows 10 with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Since Windows programs can't safely change files within the local Linux filesystem, development should be done on one of your normal local drives (such as C: or D:).

Dev Server Event Handling

It is a known issue in Docker for Windows that inotify does not work on shared volumes. This means that running gatsby develop in a docker container and editing the files locally will not trigger webpack-dev-server updates.

This limitation can be addressed in a few ways:

• Save file edits inside the running Docker container to trigger watch events normally.
• Turn on polling within the file-watcher used by Gatsby (chokidar).
• Set up you own preferred file-watcher to send events to the dev-server.

Ideally, Windows and Docker will get this issue worked out. Until then, I'll update this section with additional advice on inotify events as I get them.