can't run react app with docker container

The problem is that the dev mode will not run if it is not an interactive terminal.

Change your docker command to include an interactive terminal:

Add -it to your docker run command (-i interactive, -t pseudo-TTY) e.g. docker run -it -p 3000:3000 your_container

Canonical troubleshooting

Make sure the code runs without docker

Does npm start work on the command line?

Showing debug info

Add DEBUG=* as an environment variable inside your container.DEBUG is an environment variable which controls logging for many Node modules.

In your Dockerfile, add

ENV DEBUG=*

Or on the command line, add -e 'DEBUG=*' to your docker command.

This may help spot error messages which are somehow getting swallowed

Run node directly

Instead of running npm start, run your file directly. e.g. in your Dockerfile,

CMD ["node", "index.js"]

Try running another docker container

If this is a problem with your docker setup, running a known good container may help you discover it.

docker run --rm -it node:alpine

Improvements

Your Dockerfile could also be simplified a bit.

FROM node:alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install --production
COPY . .
CMD ["npm", "start"]

• mkdir is not needed, as WORKDIR automatically creates the directory.
• package*.json will also copy package-lock.json
• --production will skip installing devDependencies
• Putting full COPY command last will leverage cache better (you won't have to re-run npm install unless your dependencies have changed)

You might also want to use Tini. Tini forwards signals, which means docker stop and pressing control+c in an interactive terminal will actually stop the node process immediately.

If you are using Docker 1.13+, add --init to the command line to have signals forwarded and processes reaped. On older versions, follow the instructions in the README