How to enable Mac OS X native NFS (incl. Catalina)

And run app in Docker with native speed

Based on:

• https://medium.com/@sean.handley/how-to-set-up-docker-for-mac-with-native-nfs-145151458adc
• https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/337510

Prerequisites

Before doing anything check if NFS is already enabled in your system:

$ sudo nfsd status

If you get something like:

nfsd service is enabled
nfsd is running (pid 306, 8 threads)

Then you have nothing to do here! Otherwise read further.

0) Install Docker for Mac

Go to https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/install/ and follow the installation instructions to get the latest version of Docker for Mac app.

1) OS X Mojave users only: allow full disk access for your terminal app

1. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy.
2. Click the "lock" icon to make changes.
3. Scroll down the list on the left-hand side and select "Full Disk Access"
4. Click the "+" icon on the right and select the Terminal app (or in my case iTerm).

2) Create a setup file on you host machine

setup_native_nfs_docker_osx.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

OS=`uname -s`

if [ $OS != "Darwin" ]; then
  echo "This script is OSX-only. Please do not run it on any other Unix."
  exit 1
fi

if [[ $EUID -eq 0 ]]; then
  echo "This script must NOT be run with sudo/root. Please re-run without sudo." 1>&2
  exit 1
fi

echo ""
echo " +-----------------------------+"
echo " | Setup native NFS for Docker |"
echo " +-----------------------------+"
echo ""

echo "WARNING: This script will shut down running containers."
echo ""
echo -n "Do you wish to proceed? [y]: "
read decision

if [ "$decision" != "y" ]; then
  echo "Exiting. No changes made."
  exit 1
fi

echo ""

if ! docker ps > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
  echo "== Waiting for docker to start..."
fi

open -a Docker

while ! docker ps > /dev/null 2>&1 ; do sleep 2; done

echo "== Stopping running docker containers..."
docker-compose down > /dev/null 2>&1
docker volume prune -f > /dev/null

osascript -e 'quit app "Docker"'

echo "== Resetting folder permissions..."
U=`id -u`
G=`id -g`
sudo chown -R "$U":"$G" .

echo "== Setting up nfs..."
LINE="/Users -alldirs -mapall=$U:$G localhost"
FILE=/etc/exports
sudo cp /dev/null $FILE
grep -qF -- "$LINE" "$FILE" || sudo echo "$LINE" | sudo tee -a $FILE > /dev/null

LINE="nfs.server.mount.require_resv_port = 0"
FILE=/etc/nfs.conf
grep -qF -- "$LINE" "$FILE" || sudo echo "$LINE" | sudo tee -a $FILE > /dev/null

echo "== Restarting nfsd..."
sudo nfsd restart

echo "== Restarting docker..."
open -a Docker

while ! docker ps > /dev/null 2>&1 ; do sleep 2; done

echo ""
echo "SUCCESS! Now go run your containers 🐳"

Give it executable permissions and run without sudo:

$ chmod +x ./setup_native_nfs_docker_osx.sh

It will stop running Dockers containers and Docker service, enable NFS and then start Docker sevice back. You will be prompted for sudo password when enabling nfsd service.

3) Update your docker-compose.yml according to the following example:

version: '3'
services:
  api:
    volumes:
      - "nfsmount:/container/project/dir"

volumes:
  nfsmount:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=host.docker.internal,rw,nolock,hard,nointr,nfsvers=3
      device: ":/my/project/dir"

4) Start your Docker project as usual:

$ docker-compose up