Docker container won't restart when serving app with Nx and NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS = true

[decline]

Current Behavior

When serving an app with nx serve inside a docker container, it will keep hanging (without any log output) when restarting the container using docker compose restart.

I noticed this starting with Nx 20, but it could have been the case earlier maybe.

While researching, I came across this comment #27494 (comment) for a similar issue, that suggest to set NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS to false.

That fixes the issue.

I don't know what changing this variable actually causes, since I cannot find any documentation about it. Are there any negative side-effects maybe?

Nevertheless, I guess it should be fixed so that docker containers can be restarted successfully without adjusting this variable.

Expected Behavior

Docker containers should be able to restart without setting NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS to false.

GitHub Repo

https://github.com/decline/docker-nx-plugin-issue

Steps to Reproduce

Checkout the repository, then:

How to reproduce

1. Start docker container with docker compose up and wait until app gets served.
2. Go to another terminal and run docker compose restart.
3. Go back to the first terminal => the application will hang

How to fix

1. Stop docker container again with docker compose down
2. Uncomment environment variable NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS: false in docker-compose.yml
3. Start docker container docker compose up and wait until app gets served.
4. Go to another terminal and run docker compose restart.
5. Go back to the first terminal => the application restarts successfully

Nx Report

Node           : 22.13.1
OS             : linux-arm64
Native Target  : aarch64-linux
npm            : 10.9.2

nx                     : 20.5.0
@nx/js                 : 20.5.0
@nx/jest               : 20.5.0
@nx/eslint             : 20.5.0
@nx/workspace          : 20.5.0
@nx/angular            : 20.5.0
@nx/devkit             : 20.5.0
@nx/eslint-plugin      : 20.5.0
@nx/module-federation  : 20.5.0
@nx/web                : 20.5.0
@nx/webpack            : 20.5.0
typescript             : 5.7.3
---------------------------------------
Community plugins:
angular-eslint : 19.2.1

Failure Logs

Package Manager Version

No response

Operating System

• macOS
• Linux
• Windows
• Other (Please specify)

Additional Information

I ran the nx report inside the docker container which uses Debian GNU/Linux 11. On my host I am using MacOS Sequoia 15.2

[jwittekind]

I'm also experiencing this same error event with earlier versions of nx - probably 18 or 19.
Our log sais, whe first struggled with that problem on 11th April 2024.

We use docker to serve a dev server. When a docker container is stopped and (re)started again, it gets stuck and fails after a few seconds:

 | 
 |  NX   Failed to start plugin worker.
 | 
 | undefined
 | 

PS: I can confirm that `NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS=false´ fixes the issue

[distante]

I also got that, can confirm that NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS=false seems to fix the issue but I have the feeling it makes some tasks slower

[hideakikuratsu]

in my environment, NX_ISOLATE_PLUGINS=false fixed the issue, too, but setting tty: true together caused another crash while showing Nx is waiting on 10 dependent project tasks before running tasks from service1....