An Introduction to building Docker images

:construction:

(Image credit: Nilesh Jayanandana. Medium.)

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Docker Build is one of the most used features of Docker Engine. Whenever you want to create a new Docker image, Docker Build is involved.

The most common method of creating a new Docker image is executing the command

docker build

This will send a build request to the Docker Engine.

There is a new client docker buildx build command, which is part of Docker Buildx, supporting new set of builder instances.

Docker Build is an ecosystem of tools:

• Build and package an application, reading the instructions from a Dockerfile.
• Allow multi-stage builds, to keep images small with minimal dependencies.
• Build multi-platform images to run in different computer architectures.
• Build drivers for different hardware configurations.
• Optimize builds with cache management.
• Continuous integrations in software development processes.
• Export to any desired artifact, not only Docker images.
• Load Dockerfile frontend dynamically from container images.
• Configure BuildKit

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References

• Docker Build. docker docs.
• Docker Compose. docker docs.
• Build a Docker Image just like how you would configure a VM. Nilesh Jayanandana. Medium.
• Let’s publish a docker image to Docker Hub using a GitHub Action. Chamod Shehanka Perera. Medium.

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Created: 03/03/2023 (C. Lizárraga); Last update: 03/06/2023 (C. Lizárraga)

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