Just synced a node, but want to use docker instead, can I moved synced db into container?

Question

I just synced a node using geth fastsync and it took several days.

But I just decided I want to use this computer's resources differently and run my ethereum environment from a docker container

I like the prebuilt ones, but even if I compose an environment myself, is there any way to prevent resyncing from scratch? Perhaps a way to copy geth's parsed blocks and states into it?

Answer 1

You can use Docker volumes to mount a host path to a container. If your synced database is stored in /home/foo/.ethereum for example, you can mount it to the Geth docker container with:

$ docker run -it -p 30303:30303 -v /home/foo/.ethereum:/root/.ethereum ethereum/client-go

Do not change /root/.ethereum, since that's where the folder will be mounted inside the container.