Docker container shuts down giving 'data directory has wrong ownership' error when executed in windows 10

Question

I have my docker installed in Windows. I am trying to install this application. It has given me the following docker-compose.yml file:

version: '2'

services:
  web:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile-nginx
    ports:
    - "8085:80"
    networks:
      - attendizenet
    volumes:
      - .:/usr/share/nginx/html/attendize
    depends_on:
      - php
  php:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile-php
    depends_on:
      - db
      - maildev
      - redis
    volumes:
      - .:/usr/share/nginx/html/attendize
    networks: 
      - attendizenet
  php-worker:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile-php
    depends_on:
      - db
      - maildev
      - redis
    volumes:
      - .:/usr/share/nginx/html/attendize
    command: php artisan queue:work --daemon
    networks:
      - attendizenet
  db:
    image: postgres
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=attendize
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=attendize
      - POSTGRES_DB=attendize
    ports:
      - "5433:5432"
    volumes:
      - ./docker/pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    networks:
    - attendizenet
  maildev:
    image: djfarrelly/maildev
    ports:
      - "1080:80"
    networks:
      - attendizenet
  redis:
    image: redis
    networks:
      - attendizenet

networks:
  attendizenet:
    driver: bridge

All the installation goes well, but the PostgreSQL container stops after starting for a moment giving following error.

2018-03-07 08:24:47.927 UTC [1] FATAL:  data directory "/var/lib/postgresql/data" has wrong ownership
2018-03-07 08:24:47.927 UTC [1] HINT:  The server must be started by the user that owns the data directory

A simple PostgreSQL container from Docker Hub works smoothly, but the error occurs when we try to attach a volume to the container.

I am new to docker, so please ignore usage of terms wrongly.

Answer 1

This is a documented problem with the Postgres Docker image on Windows [1][2][3][4]. Currently, there doesn't appear to be a way to correctly mount Windows directories as volumes. You could instead use a persistent Docker volume, for example:

  db:
    image: postgres
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=attendize
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=attendize
      - POSTGRES_DB=attendize
    ports:
      - "5433:5432"
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    networks:
    - attendizenet

volumes:
  pgdata:

Other things that didn't work:

• Set PGDATA to a subdirectory (See PGDATA Setting)

    environment:
      - PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data/mnt
    volumes:
      - ./pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data

• Use a Bind Mount (docker-compose 3.2)

    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: ./pgdata
        target: /var/lib/postgresql/data

• Running as POSTGRES_USER=root

More Information:

GitHub

• data directory "/var/lib/postgresql/data" has wrong ownership

Docker Forums

• postgresql-data-pgdata-has-wrong-ownership
• postgres-to-work-on-persistent-windows-mount