Questions when running the Hugo in a Docker container

First of all, I’m new to the Docker and the Hugo (I know it isn’t the best combination), but I desire to learn.
So today, when I heard for the Hugo I wanted to start creating my pages (to know/learn it) through it (theory and practice).
But perhaps for obvious reasons, I want to set up the Ηugo inside a Docker container ( for development and production )

So I created the following Dockerfile :

# I use an official latest Debian GNU/Linux distribution as a parent image.
FROM debian:buster

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive

# --------------------------------------------= System configuration. =--------------------------------------------
ARG UID
ARG GID
RUN groupadd -r container-user -g $GID && useradd -ms /bin/bash container-user -u $UID -g $GID

# ========================================= End of system configuration.  =========================================

# --------------------= System requirements. =--------------------------------------------
# System update.
RUN apt-get update

# Install system packages :
RUN apt-get install -y apt-utils vim tree htop git python3 python3-pip hugo 

# Install python packages :
RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip
RUN pip3 install pygments

# System update & upgrade.
RUN apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -y && apt-get autoremove -y && apt-get autoclean -y && apt-get clean -y

# ========================================= End of system requirements.  =========================================

# --------------------------------------------= Ports & Networking. =---------------------------------------------

# Make port 80 available to the world outside this container
EXPOSE 80 1313

# ========================================== End of ports & networking.  ==========================================

USER container-user

# Set the working directory to /home/container-user/hugowebsites/
WORKDIR /home/container-user/hugowebsites/

# Copy the current directory contents (from the host) into the container at /home/container-user/hugowebsites/
COPY ./hugo_website /home/container-user/hugowebsites

# Run app when the container launches ( if I want it or not )
CMD ["tail", "-f", "/dev/null"]
## Some tests  :
#CMD ["hugo", "server", "--buildDrafts", "--watch", "--bind=0.0.0.0", "--port=80"]
#CMD ["hugo", "server", "--buildDrafts", "--watch", "--bind=0.0.0.0"]
#CMD ["hugo", "server", "--buildDrafts", "--watch"]

My docker-compose.yml file :

version: "3"
services:
    hugopage:
        build:
            context: .
            args:
                UID: ${UID} # I also have a .env file for this two args,
                GID: ${GID} # but I think that user trick isn't necessary.
# Anyway, I just saw it and did it. They reported how better 
# communication with the user of the host and the container user is achieved.
        container_name: hugo_website
        ports:
            - "80:80"
            - "13130:1313"
        volumes:
            - ./hugo_website:/home/container-user/hugowebsite:delegated

As you understand, I was connected to the container with the following command:
docker exec -u container-user -it hugo_website /bin/bash

and within the /home/container-user/hugowebsites directory, execute :
hugo new site myfirstsite

I put my theme, and trying out different things and the time has come to want to run the Hugo web server to see my page. So, I wanted to run the server through the container as I was connected to it.
So, I run the following command:
hugo server --buildDrafts --watch

Output

                   | EN  
+------------------+----+
  Pages            | 15  
  Paginator pages  |  0  
  Non-page files   |  0  
  Static files     | 16  
  Processed images |  0  
  Aliases          |  0  
  Sitemaps         |  1  
  Cleaned          |  0  

Total in 8 ms
Watching for changes in /home/container-user/hugowebsites/myfirstsite/{content,data,layouts,static,themes}
Watching for config changes in /home/container-user/hugowebsites/myfirstsite/config.toml
Environment: "development"
Serving pages from memory
Running in Fast Render Mode. For full rebuilds on change: hugo server --disableFastRender
Web Server is available at //localhost:1313/ (bind address 127.0.0.1)
Press Ctrl+C to stop

But unfortunately I can not see my static hugo page from the host machine.
Why ?

Only when I ran the following command I was able to see the page from host machine - outside from the container - :

hugo server --buildDrafts --watch --bind 192.168.48.2 --baseURL http://192.168.48.2

or

hugo server --buildDrafts --watch --bind $(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}') --baseURL http://$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}'
Output
hugo server --buildDrafts --watch --bind 192.168.64.2 --baseURL http://192.168.64.2

                   | EN  
+------------------+----+
  Pages            | 15  
  Paginator pages  |  0  
  Non-page files   |  0  
  Static files     | 16  
  Processed images |  0  
  Aliases          |  0  
  Sitemaps         |  1  
  Cleaned          |  0  

Total in 7 ms
Watching for changes in /home/container-user/hugowebsites/myfirstsite/{content,data,layouts,static,themes}
Watching for config changes in /home/container-user/hugowebsites/myfirstsite/config.toml
Environment: "development"
Serving pages from memory
Running in Fast Render Mode. For full rebuilds on change: hugo server --disableFastRender
Web Server is available at http://192.168.64.2:1313/ (bind address 192.168.64.2)
Press Ctrl+C to stop

Why is this happening ?
Even, look at the configuration file :

$ head -n 2 config.toml 
baseURL = "192.168.32.2"
languageCode = "en-us"

The setting “baseURL” isn’t important?
What role does it have?
However, I understand the baseURL setting when I run the Hugo server, but I can not understand the “bind” setting. What do we mean by this setting?

I thank the user @bep for his help :


As a second part of this topic, I would like to tell me your advice on my Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml files.

I use wrong the logic of the containers?
Is it wrong to run an application through the container (as I do) ?
Would it be better to have the following command at the end of the Dockerfile file :

CMD ["hugo", "server", "--buildDrafts", "--watch", "--bind=192.168.48.2", "--baseURL=http://192.168.48.2"]

But in this case, when I want to connect with container and run hugo commands, what will I do?

I did the docker-compose.yml file for better management and to put (mout) volumes so I can manage the (hugo) static web pages files and from my host machine .

The reasons are not obvious to me, and especially since you say you’re new to both Docker and Hugo.

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Your questions are mostly about Docker, and we troubleshoot Hugo questions. This isn’t the place to solve this issue for you. :slight_smile:

Most of all my questions are about Hugo and its settings, because I could not see it beyond the machine that was running :

And just because I explain to you all my settings and how I set it up ( with Docker ), and that’s why I ask you a few things on the Docker (and especially to run Hugo on from this).

However, if I was so mistaken and unnecessarily tiring to the Hugo community, I am sorry and forgive me. :slight_smile:

Here’s another way of saying it: if someone comes in and says their text editor doesn’t show the syntax correctly for Hugo files and they are new to Hugo and their text editor, I’m gonna think two things:

  1. I can’t help this person, because I’m not going to install the extra thing
  2. If they don’t know either system, I’d rather they learn one at a time

The second reason there is so I can help you with Hugo questions, and folks in the Docker community can help you with those questions. The system works!

So if you have a Hugo question, please read Requesting Help and follow the advice, share a repo and ask your question. I believe it likely that by following the guide we’ve developed, you’ll figure out the Hugo side of the equation. :slight_smile:

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