Configure host and port when starting clojure's boot

When you start boot it is possible to set host and port number the repl server will bind to. Just pass the -b and -p parameters.

boot repl -b 0.0.0.0 -p 40001"

Passing these parameters is necessary when you want to start a repl via boot in a docker container and then do interactive development with that container.

Try it for yourself, you can use the following docker-compose.yml file

version: "2.1"

services:
  repl:
    image: clojure:boot-alpine
    working_dir: /usr/src/app
    volumes:
      - .:/usr/src/app
    environment:
      - BOOT_LOCAL_REPO=/usr/src/app/.m2
      - REPL_PORT
      - REPL_HOST
    ports:
      - "0.0.0.0:${REPL_PORT}:${REPL_PORT}"
    command: "boot repl -b ${REPL_HOST} -p ${REPL_PORT}"

And don’t forget to set the .env file:

REPL_PORT=40001
REPL_HOST=0.0.0.0

Then to start you just need to run:

docker-compose run --service-ports repl

Notes:

• --service-ports parameter tells docker-compose to use the specified ports.
• BOOT_LOCAL_REPO env var indicates where to store the dependencies. Here we’re pointing them to /usr/src/app/.m2 that is mapped to the current host directory. This way whenever you start new repl containers they will not need to “refetch” the dependencies.