Best practices for writing Dockerfiles
Overview
Docker can build images automatically by reading the instructions from aDockerfile
, a text file that contains all the commands, in order, needed tobuild a given image. Dockerfile
s adhere to a specific format and use aspecific set of instructions. You can learn the basics on theDockerfile Reference page. Ifyou’re new to writing Dockerfile
s, you should start there.
This document covers the best practices and methods recommended by Docker,Inc. and the Docker community for creating easy-to-use, effectiveDockerfile
s. We strongly suggest you follow these recommendations (in fact,if you’re creating an Official Image, you must adhere to these practices).
You can see many of these practices and recommendations in action in the buildpack-deps Dockerfile
.
Note: for more detailed explanations of any of the Dockerfile commandsmentioned here, visit the Dockerfile Reference page.
General guidelines and recommendations
Containers should be ephemeral
The container produced by the image your Dockerfile
defines should be asephemeral as possible. By “ephemeral,” we mean that it can be stopped anddestroyed and a new one built and put in place with an absolute minimum ofset-up and configuration.
Use a .dockerignore file
In most cases, it’s best to put each Dockerfile in an empty directory. Then,add to that directory only the files needed for building the Dockerfile. Toincrease the build’s performance, you can exclude files and directories byadding a .dockerignore
file to that directory as well. This file supportsexclusion patterns similar to .gitignore
files. For information on creating one,see the .dockerignore file.
Avoid installing unnecessary packages
In order to reduce complexity, dependencies, file sizes, and build times, youshould avoid installing extra or unnecessary packages just because theymight be “nice to have.” For example, you don’t need to include a text editorin a database image.
Run only one process per container
In almost all cases, you should only run a single process in a singlecontainer. Decoupling applications into multiple containers makes it mucheasier to scale horizontally and reuse containers. If that service depends onanother service, make use of container linking.
Minimize the number of layers
You need to find the balance between readability (and thus long-termmaintainability) of the Dockerfile
and minimizing the number of layers ituses. Be strategic and cautious about the number of layers you use.
Sort multi-line arguments
Whenever possible, ease later changes by sorting multi-line argumentsalphanumerically. This will help you avoid duplication of packages and make thelist much easier to update. This also makes PRs a lot easier to read andreview. Adding a space before a backslash (\
) helps as well.
Here’s an example from the buildpack-deps
image:
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
bzr \
cvs \
git \
mercurial \
subversion
Build cache
During the process of building an image Docker will step through theinstructions in your Dockerfile
executing each in the order specified.As each instruction is examined Docker will look for an existing image in itscache that it can reuse, rather than creating a new (duplicate) image.If you do not want to use the cache at all you can use the --no-cache=true
option on the docker build
command.
However, if you do let Docker use its cache then it is very important tounderstand when it will, and will not, find a matching image. The basic rulesthat Docker will follow are outlined below:
-
Starting with a base image that is already in the cache, the nextinstruction is compared against all child images derived from that baseimage to see if one of them was built using the exact same instruction. Ifnot, the cache is invalidated.
-
In most cases simply comparing the instruction in the
Dockerfile
with oneof the child images is sufficient. However, certain instructions requirea little more examination and explanation. -
For the
ADD
andCOPY
instructions, the contents of the file(s)in the image are examined and a checksum is calculated for each file.The last-modified and last-accessed times of the file(s) are not considered inthese checksums. During the cache lookup, the checksum is compared against thechecksum in the existing images. If anything has changed in the file(s), suchas the contents and metadata, then the cache is invalidated. -
Aside from the
ADD
andCOPY
commands, cache checking will not look at thefiles in the container to determine a cache match. For example, when processingaRUN apt-get -y update
command the files updated in the containerwill not be examined to determine if a cache hit exists. In that case justthe command string itself will be used to find a match.
Once the cache is invalidated, all subsequent Dockerfile
commands willgenerate new images and the cache will not be used.
The Dockerfile instructions
Below you’ll find recommendations for the best way to write thevarious instructions available for use in a Dockerfile
.
FROM
Dockerfile reference for the FROM instruction
Whenever possible, use current Official Repositories as the basis for yourimage. We recommend the Debian imagesince it’s very tightly controlled and kept extremely minimal (currently under100 mb), while still being a full distribution.
RUN
Dockerfile reference for the RUN instruction
As always, to make your Dockerfile
more readable, understandable, andmaintainable, split long or complex RUN
statements on multiple lines separatedwith backslashes.
apt-get
Probably the most common use-case for RUN
is an application of apt-get
. TheRUN apt-get
command, because it installs packages, has several gotchas to lookout for.
You should avoid RUN apt-get upgrade
or dist-upgrade
, as many of the“essential” packages from the base images won’t upgrade inside an unprivilegedcontainer. If a package contained in the base image is out-of-date, you shouldcontact its maintainers.If you know there’s a particular package, foo
, that needs to be updated, useapt-get install -y foo
to update automatically.
Always combine RUN apt-get update
with apt-get install
in the same RUN
statement, for example:
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
package-bar \
package-baz \
package-foo
Using apt-get update
alone in a RUN
statement causes caching issues andsubsequent apt-get install
instructions fail.For example, say you have a Dockerfile:
FROM ubuntu:14.04
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl
After building the image, all layers are in the Docker cache. Suppose you latermodify apt-get install
by adding extra package:
FROM ubuntu:14.04
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl nginx
Docker sees the initial and modified instructions as identical and reuses thecache from previous steps. As a result the apt-get update
is NOT executedbecause the build uses the cached version. Because the apt-get update
is notrun, your build can potentially get an outdated version of the curl
and nginx
packages.
Using RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y
ensures your Dockerfileinstalls the latest package versions with no further coding or manualintervention. This technique is known as “cache busting”. You can also achievecache-busting by specifying a package version. This is known as version pinning,for example:
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
package-bar \
package-baz \
package-foo=1.3.*
Version pinning forces the build to retrieve a particular version regardless ofwhat’s in the cache. This technique can also reduce failures due to unanticipated changesin required packages.
Below is a well-formed RUN
instruction that demonstrates all the apt-get
recommendations.
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
aufs-tools \
automake \
build-essential \
curl \
dpkg-sig \
libcap-dev \
libsqlite3-dev \
lxc=1.0* \
mercurial \
reprepro \
ruby1.9.1 \
ruby1.9.1-dev \
s3cmd=1.1.* \
&& apt-get clean \
&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
The s3cmd
instructions specifies a version 1.1.0*
. If the image previouslyused an older version, specifying the new one causes a cache bust of apt-getupdate
and ensure the installation of the new version. Listing packages oneach line can also prevent mistakes in package duplication.
In addition, cleaning up the apt cache and removing /var/lib/apt/lists
helpskeep the image size down. Since the RUN
statement starts withapt-get update
, the package cache will always be refreshed prior toapt-get install
.
CMD
Dockerfile reference for the CMD instruction
The CMD
instruction should be used to run the software contained by yourimage, along with any arguments. CMD
should almost always be used in theform of CMD [“executable”, “param1”, “param2”…]
. Thus, if the image is for aservice (Apache, Rails, etc.), you would run something likeCMD ["apache2","-DFOREGROUND"]
. Indeed, this form of the instruction isrecommended for any service-based image.
In most other cases, CMD
should be given an interactive shell (bash, python,perl, etc), for example, CMD ["perl", "-de0"]
, CMD ["python"]
, orCMD [“php”, “-a”]
. Using this form means that when you execute something likedocker run -it python
, you’ll get dropped into a usable shell, ready to go.CMD
should rarely be used in the manner of CMD [“param”, “param”]
inconjunction with ENTRYPOINT
, unlessyou and your expected users are already quite familiar with how ENTRYPOINT
works.
EXPOSE
Dockerfile reference for the EXPOSE instruction
The EXPOSE
instruction indicates the ports on which a container will listenfor connections. Consequently, you should use the common, traditional port foryour application. For example, an image containing the Apache web server woulduse EXPOSE 80
, while an image containing MongoDB would use EXPOSE 27017
andso on.
For external access, your users can execute docker run
with a flag indicatinghow to map the specified port to the port of their choice.For container linking, Docker provides environment variables for the path fromthe recipient container back to the source (ie, MYSQL_PORT_3306_TCP
).
ENV
Dockerfile reference for the ENV instruction
In order to make new software easier to run, you can use ENV
to update thePATH
environment variable for the software your container installs. Forexample, ENV PATH /usr/local/nginx/bin:$PATH
will ensure that CMD [“nginx”]
just works.
The ENV
instruction is also useful for providing required environmentvariables specific to services you wish to containerize, such as Postgres’sPGDATA
.
Lastly, ENV
can also be used to set commonly used version numbers so thatversion bumps are easier to maintain, as seen in the following example:
ENV PG_MAJOR 9.3
ENV PG_VERSION 9.3.4
RUN curl -SL http://example.com/postgres-$PG_VERSION.tar.xz | tar -xJC /usr/src/postgress && …
ENV PATH /usr/local/postgres-$PG_MAJOR/bin:$PATH
Similar to having constant variables in a program (as opposed to hard-codingvalues), this approach lets you change a single ENV
instruction toauto-magically bump the version of the software in your container.
ADD or COPY
Dockerfile reference for the ADD instruction
Dockerfile reference for the COPY instruction
Although ADD
and COPY
are functionally similar, generally speaking, COPY
is preferred. That’s because it’s more transparent than ADD
. COPY
onlysupports the basic copying of local files into the container, while ADD
hassome features (like local-only tar extraction and remote URL support) that arenot immediately obvious. Consequently, the best use for ADD
is local tar fileauto-extraction into the image, as in ADD rootfs.tar.xz /
.
If you have multiple Dockerfile
steps that use different files from yourcontext, COPY
them individually, rather than all at once. This will ensure thateach step’s build cache is only invalidated (forcing the step to be re-run) if thespecifically required files change.
For example:
COPY requirements.txt /tmp/
RUN pip install /tmp/requirements.txt
COPY . /tmp/
Results in fewer cache invalidations for the RUN
step, than if you put theCOPY . /tmp/
before it.
Because image size matters, using ADD
to fetch packages from remote URLs isstrongly discouraged; you should use curl
or wget
instead. That way you candelete the files you no longer need after they’ve been extracted and you won’thave to add another layer in your image. For example, you should avoid doingthings like:
ADD http://example.com/big.tar.xz /usr/src/things/
RUN tar -xJf /usr/src/things/big.tar.xz -C /usr/src/things
RUN make -C /usr/src/things all
And instead, do something like:
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/things \
&& curl -SL http://example.com/big.tar.xz \
| tar -xJC /usr/src/things \
&& make -C /usr/src/things all
For other items (files, directories) that do not require ADD
’s tarauto-extraction capability, you should always use COPY
.
ENTRYPOINT
Dockerfile reference for the ENTRYPOINT instruction
The best use for ENTRYPOINT
is to set the image’s main command, allowing thatimage to be run as though it was that command (and then use CMD
as thedefault flags).
Let’s start with an example of an image for the command line tool s3cmd
:
ENTRYPOINT ["s3cmd"]
CMD ["--help"]
Now the image can be run like this to show the command’s help:
$ docker run s3cmd
Or using the right parameters to execute a command:
$ docker run s3cmd ls s3://mybucket
This is useful because the image name can double as a reference to the binary asshown in the command above.
The ENTRYPOINT
instruction can also be used in combination with a helperscript, allowing it to function in a similar way to the command above, evenwhen starting the tool may require more than one step.
For example, the Postgres Official Imageuses the following script as its ENTRYPOINT
:
#!/bin/bash
set -e
if [ "$1" = 'postgres' ]; then
chown -R postgres "$PGDATA"
if [ -z "$(ls -A "$PGDATA")" ]; then
gosu postgres initdb
fi
exec gosu postgres "$@"
fi
exec "$@"
Note:This script uses the
exec
Bash commandso that the final running application becomes the container’s PID 1. This allowsthe application to receive any Unix signals sent to the container.See theENTRYPOINT
help for more details.
The helper script is copied into the container and run via ENTRYPOINT
oncontainer start:
COPY ./docker-entrypoint.sh /
ENTRYPOINT ["/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
This script allows the user to interact with Postgres in several ways.
It can simply start Postgres:
$ docker run postgres
Or, it can be used to run Postgres and pass parameters to the server:
$ docker run postgres postgres --help
Lastly, it could also be used to start a totally different tool, such as Bash:
$ docker run --rm -it postgres bash
VOLUME
Dockerfile reference for the VOLUME instruction
The VOLUME
instruction should be used to expose any database storage area,configuration storage, or files/folders created by your docker container. Youare strongly encouraged to use VOLUME
for any mutable and/or user-serviceableparts of your image.
USER
Dockerfile reference for the USER instruction
If a service can run without privileges, use USER
to change to a non-rootuser. Start by creating the user and group in the Dockerfile
with somethinglike RUN groupadd -r postgres && useradd -r -g postgres postgres
.
Note: Users and groups in an image get a non-deterministicUID/GID in that the “next” UID/GID gets assigned regardless of imagerebuilds. So, if it’s critical, you should assign an explicit UID/GID.
You should avoid installing or using sudo
since it has unpredictable TTY andsignal-forwarding behavior that can cause more problems than it solves. Ifyou absolutely need functionality similar to sudo
(e.g., initializing thedaemon as root but running it as non-root), you may be able to use“gosu”.
Lastly, to reduce layers and complexity, avoid switching USER
backand forth frequently.
WORKDIR
Dockerfile reference for the WORKDIR instruction
For clarity and reliability, you should always use absolute paths for yourWORKDIR
. Also, you should use WORKDIR
instead of proliferatinginstructions like RUN cd … && do-something
, which are hard to read,troubleshoot, and maintain.
ONBUILD
Dockerfile reference for the ONBUILD instruction
An ONBUILD
command executes after the current Dockerfile
build completes.ONBUILD
executes in any child image derived FROM
the current image. Thinkof the ONBUILD
command as an instruction the parent Dockerfile
givesto the child Dockerfile
.
A Docker build executes ONBUILD
commands before any command in a childDockerfile
.
ONBUILD
is useful for images that are going to be built FROM
a givenimage. For example, you would use ONBUILD
for a language stack image thatbuilds arbitrary user software written in that language within theDockerfile
, as you can see in Ruby’s ONBUILD
variants.
Images built from ONBUILD
should get a separate tag, for example:ruby:1.9-onbuild
or ruby:2.0-onbuild
.
Be careful when putting ADD
or COPY
in ONBUILD
. The “onbuild” image willfail catastrophically if the new build’s context is missing the resource beingadded. Adding a separate tag, as recommended above, will help mitigate this byallowing the Dockerfile
author to make a choice.
Examples for Official Repositories
These Official Repositories have exemplary Dockerfile
s: