## Node + Docker Hello World, for Showing Good Defaults for Using Node.js in Docker
> This tries to be a "good defaults" example of using Node.js in Docker for local development and shipping to production with all the bells, whistles, and best practices. Issues/PR welcome.
- **Dev as close to prod as you can**. docker compose builds a local development image that is just like production image except for the below dev-only features needed in image. Goal is to have dev env be as close to test and prod as possible while still giving all the nice tools to make you a happy dev.
- **Prevent needing node/npm on host**. Installs `node_modules` outside app root in container so local development won't run into a problem of bind-mounting over it with local source code. This means it will run `npm install` once on container build and you don't need to run npm on host or on each docker run. It will re-run on build if you change `package.json`.
- **One line startup**. Uses `docker-compose up` for single-line build and run of local development server.
- **Edit locally while code runs in container**. docker compose uses proper bind-mounts of host source code into container so you can edit locally while running code in Linux container.
- **Use nodemon in container**. docker compose uses nodemon for development for auto-restarting node in container when you change files on host.
- **Enable debug from host to container**. opens the inspect port 9229 for using host-based debugging like chrome tools or VS Code. Nodemon enables `--inspect` by default in docker compose.
- **Provides VSCode debug configs and tasks for tests**. for Visual Studio Code fans, `.vscode` directory has the goods, thanks to @JPLemelin.
- **Small image and quick re-builds**. `COPY` in `package.json` and run `npm install`**before**`COPY` in your source code. This saves big on build time and keep container lean.
- **Bind-mount package.json**. This allows adding packages in realtime without rebuilding images. e.g. `dce node npm install --save <package name>`
### Production-minded Features
- **Use Docker build-in healthchecks**. uses Dockerfile `HEALTHCHECK` with `/healthz` route to help Docker know if your container is running properly (example always returns 200, but you get the idea).
- **Proper NODE_ENV use**. Defaults to `NODE_ENV=production` in Dockerfile and overrides to `development` in docker compose for local dev.
- **Don't add dev dependencies into production image**. Proper `NODE_ENV` use means dev dependencies won't be installed in container by default. Using docker compose will build with them by default.
- **Enables proper SIGTERM/SIGINT for graceful exit**. Defaults to `node index.js` rather then npm for allowing graceful shutdown of node. npm doesn't pass SIGTERM/SIGINT properly (you can't ctrl-c when running `docker run` in foreground). To get `node index.js` to graceful exit, extra signal-catching code is needed. The `Dockerfile` and `index.js` document the options and links to known issues.
- **Use docker-stack.yml example for Docker Swarm deployments**.
- You want to use Docker for local development (i.e. never need to install node/npm on host) and have dev and prod Docker images be as close as possible.
- You don't want to loose fidelity in your dev workflow. You want a easy environment setup, using local editors, node debug/inspect, local code repo, while node server runs in a container.
- You use `docker-compose` for local development only (docker-compose was never intended to be a production deployment tool anyway).