Docker image for browser-sync

This Docker image wraps BrowserSync exposing its command-line interface as the ENTRYPOINT. This means you can use this image as drop-in replacement for Browser Sync's CLI.

Note: please note this document assumes you're using Docker 1.9 or above.

It has been tested with Docker for Mac and with Docker Machine on OSX.

Table of Contents

• How to use this image.
• Docker Machine in OSX.

How to use this image

The basic Browser Sync examples translated are the exact same commands with the docker command prefixing it.

Static sites

The following case publishes port 3000 and port 3001 so you can use the static server and configure Browser Sync as always.

docker run -dt \
           --name browser-sync \
           -p 3000:3000 \
           -p 3001:3001 \
           -v $(PWD):/source \
           -w /source \
           ustwo/browser-sync \
           start --server --files "css/*.css"

Dynamic sites

In this case, you have to let Docker know how to resolve the host you are proxying to. There are a couple of ways to do this so we'll go one by one.

Link

A docker link is a one-way connection between two containers. Order matters so you have to first start your app and then link Browser Sync to it:

docker run -dt --name myapp -p 8000:8000 myimage

docker run -dt \
           --name browser-sync \
           --link myapp \
           -p 3000:3000 \
           -p 3001:3001 \
           ustwo/browser-sync \
           start --proxy "myapp:8000" --files "css/*.css"

Notice the name of the app and the link are the same, and the browser sync proxy flag has the same name as well as the exposed port of your app. There is no need to use the -p 8000:8000 flag, it is just to make it more clear.

Custom network

A docker network is a connection between multiple containers. Unlike links, order does not matter so it is a more robust solution, but it requires setting up the network before running the containers. It is a one-time thing though:

docker network create bs

Then you start both services as follows:

docker run -dt --name myapp --net bs myimage

docker run -dt \
           --name browser-sync \
           --net bs \
           -p 3000:3000 \
           -p 3001:3001 \
           ustwo/browser-sync \
           start --proxy "myapp:8000" --files "css/*.css"

Config file

Given the image exposes Browser Sync's CLI as is, you can use a config file as well.

docker run -dt \
           --name browser-sync \
           --net bs \
           -p 3000:3000 \
           -p 3001:3001 \
           ustwo/browser-sync \
           -v $(PWD)/config.js:/source/config.js \
           start --config config.js

Docker Compose

Take a look to docker-compose.yml for a simple case.

Docker Machine in OSX

Docker Machine with Virtualbox has limited support of filesystem events. BrowserSync uses filesystem events as its main strategy to watch for changes and falls back to polling otherwise. If you are in this situation you can only use the polling strategy as shown in sandbox/polling.js.

Contact

• [email protected]

Maintainers

• Arnau Siches (@arnau)

License

There is no guarantee of active maintenance. Licensed under MIT.