Dockerized PostgreSQL and Django for Local Development
Docker and docker-compose make it dead simple to avoid dependency hell and have a consistent environment for your whole team while doing local development. This post walks through setting up a new Django project from scratch to use Docker and docker-compose. It is modeled after a previous post that I wrote about doing a similar thing with Laravel and MySQL.
Dockerfile
Nothing too interesting happening here. Installing python and pip.FROM ubuntu:16.04system update
RUN apt update RUN apt upgrade -y
python deps
RUN apt install -y python3-dev python3-pip
docker-compose.yml
version: '2' services: app: build: . ports: - "8000:8000" volumes: - .:/app working_dir: /app command: bash -c "pip3 install -r requirements.txt && python3 manage.py migrate && python3 manage.py runserver 0:8000" depends_on: - db db: image: postgres:9.6.5-alpine environment: - POSTGRES_USER=feedread - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=feedread volumes: - ./data:/var/lib/postgresql/data ports: - "5432:5432"
docker-compose up
. Each time the app starts it will install the latest dependencies, run migrations, and start serving the app on localhost:8000
Notes
- In order to do stuff with the database locally you should add the following record to your local /etc/hosts file
# /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 db
- Since we define -
.:/app
as a volume, this means that all of your local changes are immediately visible in the dockerized app. - If you need to access the running app or db container you can do so with
docker-compose exec app bash
ordocker-compose exec db bash
. - This docker-compose file is not really suitable for production since it is not likely that you would want to build the container each time the app starts or automatically run migrations.
- You can add additional services like memcached, a mail server, an app server, a queue, etc., using the same method that we are using above with our database.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- 2024
- Reinstalling Windows at 1am
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- My Custom Miniflux CSS Theme
- How to Disable Wayland in Debian Testing
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- The AGI economy is coming faster than you think from Freethink
- Rolling the ladder up behind us from Xe Iaso's blog
- In Praise of “Normal” Engineers from charity.wtf
- Reports of Bluesky's death have been greatly exaggerated from The Torment Nexus
- What Would a Kubernetes 2.0 Look Like from matduggan.com
- We Can Just Measure Things from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- The Gentle Singularity from Sam Altman
- Whale Watching from https://popagandhi.com/
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
Pluralistic: Daniel de Visé's 'The Blues Brothers' (21 Jun 2025)
Today's links Daniel de Visé's 'The Blues Brothers': Far more than production gossip – an unmissable portrait of a turning point in American comedy and music. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015, 20…
via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow June 21, 2025Hiding metrics from the web
In 2012, artist Ben Grosser released a browser extension called Facebook Demetricator. Once installed, it hid all metrics from Facebook’s interface: likes, comments, notifications, unread messages, and so on. “What’s going on here is that these quantifica…
via Manual do Usuário June 21, 2025It's like surfing
The weird thing about engineering management is that you feel kinda useless. Yet if you stop, projects stop.
via swizec.com RSS Feed June 21, 2025Generated by openring