Error EACCES: permission denied when running the (development) live-reload server on macOS with Docker Desktop + VirtIOFS

[dduportal]

What is the problem?

When executing the target make run on macOS, with Docker Desktop and the new VirtIOfs file sharing enabled, then an error EACCES: permission denied is thrown by the npm install step (running inside the container).
The error changes on each run, but is always located in a subdirectory of node_modules: it seems that the call from npm to mkdir in order to create these sub directories is having an unexpected behavior: the directory is created, with the correct permissions, but the syscall still fails at the end which results in npm failing to install dependencies.

Short Term Fix

• Disable VirtIOfs on your Docker Desktop installation (works fine, but performances are clearly below, and Docker Desktop consumes more resources)
• Or prefer a local NodeJS/npm instalaltion instead of the Docker image (export USE_LOCAL_NODE=true -

  jenkins.io/scripts/node

  Line 3 in ac95b61

  if [ -n "${USE_LOCAL_NODE}" ]; then

  )

Long Term Fix

I intend to send a PR, but anyone interested in fixing this is welcome.
Expect some delays as I want to report this behavior to Docker Inc. to help them improve the VirtIOfs coverage.

But the main idea is to clean up:

• I don't see any reason to share the node_modules directory between the container and the host. It's only taking a toll on the performances, and complicates things too much
• The amount of shellcheck issues on these script is insane.

Really Long Term / Paradigm Change

That could be a great opportunity for anyone interested to check if https://dagger.io/ couldn't be a tool to stop writing an insane amount of makefile/shell/node code.

References

• https://www.docker.com/blog/speed-boost-achievement-unlocked-on-docker-desktop-4-6-for-mac/
• VirtioFS directory sharing has permission errors docker/for-mac#6239 => same error, issue is closed due to inactivity, but still the same error
• VirtioFS is not handling permissions as expected. All mount permissions are owned by root regardless of chown. docker/for-mac#6243 => a long thread on this subject

[dduportal]

Thanks to the help of Docker Inc'. people, this problem is now fixed.

Solution: upgrade to Docker Desktop 4.7.1 (or later).