How can I install Django in my Docker file? - django

Question

I am a newbie to Docker. I have created one Django project and can run it in Docker. However, I have started a second project and have encountered a problem.
I created a virtual env and entered it
pipenv install django~=3.1.0 && pipenv shell
I created a Django project
django-admin startproject config .
I ran it within the virtualenv
python manage.py runserver
and could see the Django spaceship
I then exited the virtualenv and created a Dockerfile
Dockerfile
# Pull base image
FROM python:3.8
# Set environment variables
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
# Set work directory
WORKDIR /code
# Install dependencies
COPY Pipfile Pipfile.lock /code/
RUN pip install pipenv && pipenv install --system
# Copy project
COPY . /code/
I ran
docker build .
and it reported a successful build
I created a docker-compose.yml file
docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'
services:
web:
build: .
command: python /code/manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
volumes:
- .:/code
ports:
- 8000:8000
When I run
docker-compose up
it complains
ImportError: Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you forget to activate a virtual environment?
I have read in the comments to this question that virtual envs should not be used in docker files, so I replaced
RUN pip install pipenv && pipenv install --system
with
RUN pip install django~=3.1.0
but I still get the same error.
What is wrong?

Answer 1

Have you tried installing your list of requirements from a separate file, something like this?
COPY requirements.txt /code/requirements.txt
WORKDIR /code
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
Once you have it installed you can run docker-compose run web /bin/sh to start a shell and then use django-admin startproject to create a django project. You may need to change the path in the docker-compose file so that it reflects where your manage.py file ended up (I moved mine to the root). I was able to get it working with the following:
requirements.txt
django==3.1.0
docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'
services:
web:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: Dockerfile
command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
volumes:
- .:/code
ports:
- 8000:8000
Dockerfile
# Pull base image
FROM python:3.8
# Set environment variables
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
# Set work directory
WORKDIR /code
# Install dependencies
COPY requirements.txt /code/requirements.txt
WORKDIR /code
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
# Copy project
COPY . /code/
File tree looks like this: