When you rebuild your Docker image, the new image doesn’t have any knowledge of the files that were uploaded during a previous run of a container based on the old image. It’s a fresh, clean environment that’s based solely on the instructions in your Dockerfile and doesn’t contain any of the runtime data from your old container.
But when you use a Docker volume, that volume is not part of the image; it exists independently and retains its data across container restarts and rebuilds. The key thing is that the volume must be mounted to the correct directory inside the container, which is where the application saves the uploaded files.
Here’s how you could use Docker volumes to store your uploaded files:
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Ensure that your Flask application is correctly configured to save uploaded files to the directory where you’re mounting your Docker volume. For example, if you’re mounting your Docker volume to /app/uploads inside the container, you should set UPLOAD_FOLDER in your Flask configuration to /app/uploads.
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When you run your container, specify the -v option to mount the volume to the correct directory inside the container. For example:
docker run -v myvideostorage:/app/uploads -p 5000:5000 your-flask-image
In this command, myvideostorage is the name of your Docker volume, and /app/uploads is the directory inside the container where you want to mount the volume.
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Check that the volume is correctly mounted and that your application is saving files to the correct directory. You can do this by uploading a file and then inspecting the contents of the Docker volume. For example:
docker run -v myvideostorage:/tmp/volume alpine ls /tmp/volume
Remember, the Docker volume exists independently of any container, so the files it contains should persist across container restarts and rebuilds, as long as you always mount the volume to the correct directory when you run your container.
If you’re still experiencing issues, please check your Flask application’s configuration and the Docker run command you’re using to ensure the volume is being mounted to the correct directory. Also, check that your Flask application has the necessary permissions to write files to the directory where you’re mounting the volume.