Docker container requires rebuild for every change in server.js despite using volumes

[said96dev]

Description

I’m working on a Node.js backend project, and I’m using Docker with Docker Compose for my setup. My folder structure looks like this:

project-root/
│
├── server/
│   ├── Controllers/
│   ├── db/
│   ├── node_modules/
│   ├── Routers/
│   ├── server.js
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── package.json
│   └── package-lock.json
├── docker-compose.yml
└── Client/

Steps To Reproduce

I’m working on a Node.js backend project, and I’m using Docker with Docker Compose for my setup. My folder structure looks like this:

project-root/
│
├── server/
│   ├── Controllers/
│   ├── db/
│   ├── node_modules/
│   ├── Routers/
│   ├── server.js
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── package.json
│   └── package-lock.json
├── docker-compose.yml
└── Client/

Despite using volumes in my docker-compose.yml to map my local server folder to the container, every time I make a change in server.js, I need to rebuild the Docker container for the changes to take effect. My expectation is that changes should be immediately reflected in the running container without a rebuild, especially since I’m using nodemon to watch for file changes.

docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.8'

services:
  api:
    build:
      context: ./server
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    volumes:
      - ./server:/app
      - /app/node_modules
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=development
    command: npm start

Dockerfile

FROM node:16

WORKDIR /app

COPY package.json package-lock.json ./

RUN npm install

COPY . .

CMD ["npm", "start"]

Package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "nodemon server.js"
  }
}

Compose Version

Docker Compose version v2.29.2-desktop.2

I want changes in my server.js file (and others) to be automatically picked up by the container without needing to rebuild. How can I achieve this? Is there something wrong with my volume setup, or am I missing something else?

Docker Environment

No response

Anything else?

No response

[ndeloof]

This should work.
Please run docker compose exec api ls -al /app to double check file is well updated inside container after you made local change.
I wonder: don't you need to run npm in dev mode to get files reloaded ?

As an alternative to bind mount you could use the watch feature to sync ./server with container's /app on filesystem changes.