Building your first Docker image

Install Docker

Before using Docker, it must be downloaded. While Docker is native to Linux, it may also be available on macOS and Windows with Docker for Mac and Docker for Windows, respectively. I am not going into installation details here, yet you can install Docker on a Linux computer via this guide....

Docker images and Containers

Docker images define the operation of a container, much way blueprints or templates do. They consist of all the code, dependencies, libraries, and runtime required for running an application. To learn more about the Docker images, refer to this link....

Docker Building Files

Docker building files also known as Dockerfiles are text files that contain instructions for building Docker images. These files consists of a set of commands and arguments that define the image’s configuration. Dockerfiles allow developers to automate the process of building and deploying applications by specifying all the necessary components and dependencies in a single file....

Building your first Docker image

Create a Dockerfile in your project directory. Define the base image, copy files, and specify commands in the Dockerfile. Use the docker build command to build the image, like docker build -t my-image .. Once built, run a container from the image using docker run my-image....

Dockerfile

The Dockerfile uses DSL (Domain Specific Language) and contains instructions for generating a Docker image. Dockerfile will define the processes to quickly produce an image. While creating your application, you should create a Dockerfile in order since the Docker daemon runs all of the instructions from top to bottom. To learn more about the dockerfile refer to this link....

The Base Image

To create a Docker image, start with the base image. It provides the base upon which the dependencies of your application are built. The FROM instructions is used to indicate the base image when constructing a Dockerfile. The parent image that your image will be based on is explained in this instruction. This dockerfile instructions must be included....

Copying source code

Using the COPY instruction in your Dockerfile is what’s needed to copy source code into a Docker image. The host machine’s folders and files have been copied into the image via this instruction....

Exposing a port

Containers and the outside world can communicate when a port in a Docker image is exposed. Running networked applications inside of containers needs this. The EXPOSE directive is used in Dockerfiles to expose ports. The above command tells Docker that the container will be waiting at runtime on the specified port. For more detail explanation refer this article....

Docker CMD

The CMD instruction in a Dockerfile specifies the default command to run when a container is started from the image. It is one of the essential instructions for defining the container’s behavior....

Building Docker images

Building Docker images involves using the docker build command to create a new image from a Dockerfile. This process takes the instructions defined in the Dockerfile and executes them to construct the image....

Tagging a Docker image

Tagging a Docker image involves assigning a specific name and optionally a tag to the image. This allows you to identify and reference the image more easily....

Running or Testing a Docker image

To run or test a Docker image, you use the docker run command. This command creates a new container from the specified image and starts it....

Pushing a Docker image to the Docker repository

Push a Docker image to a Docker repository, such as Docker Hub, you’ll first need to log in to your Docker Hub account using the docker login command....

Best practices for optimizing Docker builds

Combining related commands into a single RUN instructions lowers the number of scales. Remove pointless files and directories from the build context with a.dockerignore file. Using caching to speed up builds through placing commands that change frequently toward the end of the Dockerfile. By separating the build environment from the runtime environment, multi-stage builds assist in reducing the size of the final image. Using small base images and removing unnecessary dependencies and files to keep images small. Whenever possible, use COPY instead of ADD to enhance transparency and avoid unexpected behavior. After each step, tidy up to reduce the size of the image and avoid unnecessary bloat. Assuring security through performing assessments of vulnerabilities on dependencies and base images. Speeding builds through the use of BuildKit is parallelization and cache operations....

Docker – Building Files – FAQs

What is Docker built with?...