How do I load a database into MariaDB?

Docker Engine Compose
1

Hello,
The docker-compose.yml file looks like this:

db:
   image: mariadb:latest
   container_name: db
   restart: unless-stopped
   environment:
     MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootsecret
     MARIADB_DATABASE: laravel_db
     MARIADB_USER: laravel_user
     MARIADB_PASSWORD: secret
   volumes:
     - mariadb_data:/var/lib/mysql
     - ./mysql/my.cnf:/etc/mysql/my.cnf
     - ./file.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/file.sql
   ports:
     - "3306:3306"
   networks:
     - app_network

After the container was started, I entered it with the command docker exec -it db bash and ran the following command:

# mariadb -u laravel_user -psecret laravel_db -e "SHOW TABLES;"

+------------------------+
|...                     |
| form_fields            |
| form_orders            |
| frequencies            |
| gallery_products       |
| job_batches            |
| jobs                   |
| login_logs             |
| migrations             |
| option_form_orders     |
| password_reset_tokens  |
| permission_role        |
| permissions            |
| personal_access_tokens |
| products               |
| remotes                |
| roles                  |
| sessions               |
| shell_colors           |
| sizes                  |
| statuses               |
| tab_forms              |
| type_matrices          |
| type_orders            |
| units                  |
| users                  |
| vents                  |
| wax_guards             |
+------------------------+

I stopped the container using the docker compose down -v command and removed the line - ./file.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/file.sql. I restarted the container and logged into it and ran the following command and it had no output:

# mariadb -u laravel_user -psecret laravel_db -e "SHOW TABLES;"
#

I have a few questions:

1- Should that line always be present in the compose file?

2- If that line exists, then new data will be lost every time the container is restarted.

Thank you.

2

Please read the doc, specifically “Initializing the database contents”.

You store the database data within a Docker volume:

You explicitly remove that volume in your down command:

That’s why your database is empty after restart.

Using -v will delete data stored in volumes, which is not recoverable unless backed up. Only use it when you’re sure you don’t need the persistent data anymore.

1 Like
3

Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply.