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Maybe I don't understand docker as well as I'd like - but why do you create the named volume instead of simply mapping to a local folder on the host?

In my experience mapping to a local dir is nice because you can browse the files on the host machine and can implement backups etc... quite easily.

When you do a named volume like that, where are the actual files on the host?

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On Debian they end up under /var/lib/docker/volumes/

Ah ok cool, I guess it isn't hard to find then.

I usually have my docker-compose.yml file in a dir along with the mapped volume directories. Allows me to just rsync that one folder to capture all config & data.

Are names volumes just a way to not have to worry about the files and leave them handled by docker?

Yea a use case would be to to persist application data when updating by pulling a newer container. Mapping to the host introduces the possibility of conflicts between the host and/or other containers.

You can move them as well.

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