Running Elixir in docker

Mon, Jul 5, 2021 1 min read

You don’t need to install Elixir and all dependencies. You can use docker to make your life easier.

containers

If you have docker and docker-compose you don’t necessarily need to install Elixir from scratch. There’s an easy way, you can let containers do the heavy lifting.

Just create a new app, for instance:

$ mix new elixir_docker

Then create a docker file based on the Elixir image:

Dockerfile

FROM bitwalker/alpine-elixir:latest

WORKDIR /app

COPY mix.exs .

CMD mix deps.get

Then a docker-compose file. This will be useful later on when you add more pieces to your system like a database.

docker-compose.yml

version: '3.6'
services:
  app:
    build: .
    environment:
      MIX_ENV: dev
    volumes:
      - .:/app

And then you just need to build your container and run it.

$ docker-compose build
$ docker-compose run app iex -S mix

And just like that, you have a running iex.

Well, depending on your network to download the images and if you already have docker and docker-compose installed.

But you get my point 😏

And you are ready to go. For now, I’ll keep using Elixir locally on my Ubuntu, you can call me old school, but this is surely a great alternative.

For reference: Development environment for Elixir + Phoenix with Docker and Docker-compose