<p>My Docker container running in a <code>minikube</code> pod has configured a directory mounted from the host's <strong>non-empty</strong> <code>/home/my_username/useful/dir</code>. <code>kubectl</code> shows what I expect:</p>
<pre><code>$ kubectl get --namespace=my_namespace pods/my-pod -o json | jq '.spec.volumes[3]'
{
  &quot;hostPath&quot;: {
    &quot;path&quot;: &quot;/hosthome/my_username/useful/dir&quot;,
    &quot;type&quot;: &quot;Directory&quot;
  },
  &quot;name&quot;: &quot;useful_dir&quot;
}
$ kubectl get --namespace=my_namespace pods/my-pod -o json | jq '.spec.containers[].volumeMounts[3]'
{
  &quot;mountPath&quot;: &quot;/dir/in/container&quot;,
  &quot;name&quot;: &quot;useful_dir&quot;,
  &quot;readOnly&quot;: true
}
</code></pre>
<p>But in the pod, the mountpoint is empty:</p>
<pre><code>$ kubectl exec --stdin --tty --namespace my_namespace my-pod -- ls /dir/in/container
total 0
</code></pre>
<p>I looked at the pod's mountpoint with <code>kubectl exec --stdin --tty --namespace my_namespace my-pod -- findmnt /dir/in/container</code>, and see <code>overlay[/hosthome/my_username/useful/dir]</code>. From this, I conclude that Docker has mounted the directory from the host as expected.</p>
<p>I check the mountpoint directly from a pod's container (as root to make sure there is no permission restriction in the way):</p>
<pre><code>$ docker exec -it -u root minikube /bin/bash
root@minikube:/# docker exec -it -u root &lt;container_id&gt; ls /dir/in/container
root@minikube:/#
</code></pre>
<p>It does not have any content which is present in the host.</p>
<p>What should I look for to investigate?</p>

Konstantin Shemyak
<p>Issue solved in comments, the driver was running dockerd inside a container itself so it didn't have a global filesystem view. Solved via <code>minikube mount</code>.</p>
