Fixing Permissions In Docker Container

There are two ways to fix permissions in a docker container.

Create User and Group in Container (first way)

Dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu

ARG WWW_USER_UID=1000
ARG WWW_GROUP_GID=1000

RUN addgroup -gid $WWW_GROUP_GID www
RUN adduser www \
	-uid $WWW_USER_UID \
	--disabled-login \
	--ingroup www \
	--no-create-home \
	--quiet \
	--system

RUN mkdir /app
RUN chown www:www /app
RUN mkdir /home/www
RUN chown www:www /home/www

USER www

WORKDIR /app

WWW_USER_UID and WWW_GROUP_GID must be equal to the user of the host machine, i.e. your current user outside the container.

Fix permissions with ACL (second way)

Dockerfile:

FROM alpine:latest as alpine

RUN apk add acl make

WORKDIR app

CMD ["tail", "-f", "/dev/null"]

docker-compose.yaml:

version: "3.4"

services:
  alpine:
    build:
      context: .
      target: alpine
    stop_grace_period: 0s
    volumes:
      - .:/app

Makefile:

fix-permissions:
	setfacl -dR -m u:$(uid):rwX .
	setfacl -R -m u:$(uid):rwX .

Run command:

docker-compose exec alpine make fix-permissions uid=$(id -u)

ACL is an add-on to the standard system of rights and permissions, that is, if the current user does not have the rights and permissions to read / write / execute a file or directory, then using ACL gives such feature by using setfacl command.