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Docker Compose for WordPress Containers Fails to Mount Local Volumes with ${PWD} Paths in Ubuntu/AWS

I'm encountering an issue with Docker Compose on an Ubuntu server (AWS) where it fails to mount local volumes despite using ${PWD} paths in the docker-compose.yml file. The setup involves a WordPress site with separate volumes for the database and WordPress content. Here's the relevant part of my docker-compose.yml:


volumes:
  data-db:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      o: bind
      device: ${PWD}/storage/data-db
  data-wp:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      o: bind
      device: ${PWD}/storage/data-wp

I've verified the directories /home/ubuntu/storage/data-db and /home/ubuntu/storage/data-wp exist and have appropriate permissions:

drwxr-xr-x 2 ubuntu root 4096 Mar 31 23:08 storage/data-db
drwxr-xr-x 2 ubuntu root 4096 Mar 31 23:08 storage/data-wp

When running the command sudo docker-compose -f ubuntu-container-bundle.yml up -d && docker-compose -f ubuntu-container-bundle.yml logs -f, I receive the following error:

Error response from daemon: failed to populate volume: error while mounting volume '/var/lib/docker/volumes/ubuntu_data-db/_data': failed to mount local volume: mount /storage/data-db:/var/lib/docker/volumes/ubuntu_data-db/_data, flags: 0x1000: no such file or directory

It's perplexing because the error message suggests Docker is trying to mount from /storage/data-db instead of the specified absolute path. I've tried the following to troubleshoot:

  • Checked that the specified directories exist and have correct permissions.
  • Used docker volume prune to clear unused volumes.
  • Restarted the Docker service with sudo systemctl restart docker.
  • Ensured there are no typos or errors in my docker-compose.yml.
  • Run with --force-recreate to force containers to recreate.

Despite these efforts, the error persists. Is there a caching issue with Docker Compose, or am I missing something in my volume configuration? How can I resolve this mounting issue?

Note: I'm doing this from /home/ubuntu/. When I build the wp container just using a simple reference like:

    volumes:
      - ./:/var/www/html/

It messed up my SSH server access. I did I little research and seems to be a conflict with root user - not sure yet. Anyway, that's why I'm trying to set the directories and even tried to put all the build files (yml and dockerfiles) in a separate directory (/home/ubuntu/build-files-wp) but it's also returning me the same error.

Config

  • AWS
  • Ubuntu 22.04
  • Docker version 26.0.0
  • Docker Compose version v2.26.1
Solution

  • Use . rather than ${PWD}.

    version: '3.8'
services:
  wordpress:
    image: wordpress
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    volumes:
      - data-wp:/var/www/html
    environment:
      - WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=db
      - WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wordpress
      - WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=password
      - WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress
  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    volumes:
      - data-db:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      MYSQL_USER: wordpress
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
volumes:
  data-db:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      o: bind
      device: ./storage/data-db
  data-wp:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      o: bind
      device: ./storage/data-wp