Group 65Go to Divio
All Collections
Local Development
Docker
How to use a directory outside C:\Users with Docker Toolbox/Docker for Windows

How to use a directory outside C:\Users with Docker Toolbox/Docker for Windows

On Windows, there are some restrictions on the location of your workspace folder - here is how to work around them
Daniele Procida avatar
Written by Daniele Procida
Updated over a week ago

Docker for Windows

In the native Docker for Windows, go to Settings > Share drive, and select the drive.

Docker Toolbox

Docker Toolbox expects that your data volumes will be within C:\Users. This is because Docker has limited access to the filesystem on the host computer.

If you need your project directories to be located elsewhere, for example on your D:\ drive, you will need to take some extra steps to achieve this.

Note: In the steps below, we use some example names, that you should substitute for ones appropriate to your needs. They are:

  • shared folder/workspace directory: D:\Projects\Divio
  •  shared folder name in VIrtualBox: Divio 
  • mount point in the Docker Machine: /homedocker/projects 

Mount an arbitrary host directory in a Docker container

  1. Stop Docker Machine if it's running, with docker-machine stop.
  2. In VirtualBox, add a Shared Folder: Settings > Shared Folders > Add share - this will be the directory where you want to locate your project, such as D:\Projects\Divio. Give it an appropriate Folder Name, such as Divio.
  3. Restart Docker Machine, with docker-machine start.
  4. SSH into the Docker Machine, with docker-machine ssh.
  5. Create a directory in the machine as a mount point for the project directories, for example: mkdir projects. This will be /home/docker/projects - you can verify it by running pwd.
  6. Mount the Shared Folder you named above (Divio) at the mount point you have created: sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=50 Divio /home/docker/projects 

Your Docker Machine will now be able to access the files in D:\Projects\Divio  (shared in VirtualBox under the name Divio) as /home/docker/projects.

Enabling permanent access

This arrangement will only persist while the Docker Machine is still running - if you restart it, the shared directory will no longer be mounted.

You can set up permanent mounting by editing the Boot2Docker configuration.

Edit /mnt/sda1/var/lib/boot2docker/profile (you may need to use sudo  when opening the file) and add the commands:

mkdir /home/docker/projects
sudo mount -t vboxsf -o uid=1000,gid=50 Divio /home/docker/projects

Test it by stopping and restarting the Docker Machine. Once you're back in the Docker Machine, if you run ls projects, you will see the files in D:\Projects\Divio.

Did this answer your question?