Question
I have a Python (2.7) app which is started in my dockerfile:
CMD ["python","main.py"]
main.py prints some strings when it is started and goes into a loop afterwards:
print "App started"
while True:
time.sleep(1)
As long as I start the container with the -it flag, everything works as expected:
$ docker run --name=myapp -it myappimage
> App started
And I can see the same output via logs later:
$ docker logs myapp
> App started
If I try to run the same container with the -d flag, the container seems to start normally, but I can't see any output:
$ docker run --name=myapp -d myappimage
> b82db1120fee5f92c80000f30f6bdc84e068bafa32738ab7adb47e641b19b4d1
$ docker logs myapp
$ (empty)
But the container still seems to run;
$ docker ps
Container Status ...
myapp up 4 minutes ...
Attach does not display anything either:
$ docker attach --sig-proxy=false myapp
(working, no output)
Any ideas whats going wrong? Does "print" behave differently when ran in background?
Docker version:
Client version: 1.5.0
Client API version: 1.17
Go version (client): go1.4.2
Git commit (client): a8a31ef
OS/Arch (client): linux/arm
Server version: 1.5.0
Server API version: 1.17
Go version (server): go1.4.2
Git commit (server): a8a31ef
Answer
Finally I found a solution to see Python output when running daemonized in Docker, thanks to @ahmetalpbalkan over at GitHub. Answering it here myself for further reference :
Using unbuffered output with
CMD ["python","-u","main.py"]
instead of
CMD ["python","main.py"]
solves the problem; you can see the output now (both, stderr and stdout) via
docker logs myapp
why -u
ref
- print is indeed buffered and docker logs will eventually give you that output, just after enough of it will have piled up
- executing the same script with python -u gives instant output as said above
- import logging + logging.warning("text") gives the expected result even without -u
what it means by python -u ref. > python --help | grep -- -u
-u : force the stdout and stderr streams to be unbuffered;
