Docker-Compose persistent data MySQL

first, you need to delete all old mysql data using

docker-compose down -v

after that add two lines in your docker-compose.yml

volumes:
  - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql

and

volumes:
  mysql-data:

your final docker-compose.yml will looks like

version: '3.1'

services:
  php:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    ports:
      - 80:80
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html/
  db:
    image: mysql
    command: --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql

  adminer:
    image: adminer
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
volumes:
  mysql-data:

after that use this command

docker-compose up -d

now your data will persistent and will not be deleted even after using this command

docker-compose down

extra:- but if you want to delete all data then you will use

docker-compose down -v

There are 3 ways:

First way

You need specify the directory to store mysql data on your host machine. You can then remove the data container. Your mysql data will be saved on you local filesystem.

Mysql container definition must look like this:

mysql:
  container_name: flask_mysql
  restart: always
  image: mysql:latest
  environment:
    MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'test_pass' # TODO: Change this
    MYSQL_USER: 'test'
    MYSQL_PASS: 'pass'
volumes:
 - /opt/mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
ports:
  - "3306:3306"

Second way

Would be to commit the data container before typing docker-compose down:

docker commit my_data_container
docker-compose down

Third way

Also you can use docker-compose stop instead of docker-compose down (then you don't need to commit the container)


The data container is a superfluous workaround. Data-volumes would do the trick for you. Alter your docker-compose.yml to:

version: '2'
services:
  mysql:
    container_name: flask_mysql
    restart: always
    image: mysql:latest
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'test_pass' # TODO: Change this
      MYSQL_USER: 'test'
      MYSQL_PASS: 'pass'
    volumes:
      - my-datavolume:/var/lib/mysql
volumes:
  my-datavolume:

Docker will create the volume for you in the /var/lib/docker/volumes folder. This volume persist as long as you are not typing docker-compose down -v