Python app does not print anything when running detached in docker
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 (both, stderr and stdout) via
docker logs myapp
now!
In my case, running Python with -u
didn't change anything. What did the trick, however, was to set PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
as environment variable:
docker run --name=myapp -e PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 -d myappimage
[Edit]: Updated PYTHONUNBUFFERED=0
to PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
after Lars's comment. This doesn't change the behavior and adds clarity.
See this article which explain detail reason for the behavior:
There are typically three modes for buffering:
- If a file descriptor is unbuffered then no buffering occurs whatsoever, and function calls that read or write data occur immediately (and will block).
- If a file descriptor is fully-buffered then a fixed-size buffer is used, and read or write calls simply read or write from the buffer. The buffer isn’t flushed until it fills up.
- If a file descriptor is line-buffered then the buffering waits until it sees a newline character. So data will buffer and buffer until a \n is seen, and then all of the data that buffered is flushed at that point in time. In reality there’s typically a maximum size on the buffer (just as in the fully-buffered case), so the rule is actually more like “buffer until a newline character is seen or 4096 bytes of data are encountered, whichever occurs first”.
And GNU libc (glibc) uses the following rules for buffering:
Stream Type Behaviorstdin input line-bufferedstdout (TTY) output line-bufferedstdout (not a TTY) output fully-bufferedstderr output unbuffered
So, if use -t
, from docker document, it will allocate a pseudo-tty, then stdout
becomes line-buffered
, thus docker run --name=myapp -it myappimage
could see the one-line output.
And, if just use -d
, no tty was allocated, then, stdout
is fully-buffered
, one line App started
surely not able to flush the buffer.
Then, use -dt
to make stdout line buffered
or add -u
in python to flush the buffer
is the way to fix it.