Container Development Practices

[ErezBinyamin]

Some suggestions to Dockerfiles.md based on some of my own personal development methods.

• Use Makefiles to build / test / run
  • Track changes in dependent files/artifacts so as to rebuild images when necessary
  • Manage the frequently complex build, run, and management targets centrally
  • Version track Makefiles alongside container code and configuration files (Dockerfiles)
  • Use version-tracking ignored .keep files at build targets

Notional template makefile for a Docker project

IMAGE_NAME=iqtapp
DEPS=Dockerfile iqtapp.py iqtapp.config

KEEPFILE?=.imagebuild_$(IMAGE_NAME)
DOCKER_USERNAME?=erezbinyamin
PUSHTAG?=latest

build:$(KEEPFILE)
$(KEEPFILE): $(DEPS)
	docker build --tag $(IMAGE_NAME) .
	touch $(KEEPFILE)

rebuild:
	docker build --no-cache --tag $(IMAGE_NAME) .
	touch $(KEEPFILE)

bash: build
	docker run -it --network host --privileged $(IMAGE_NAME) bash

clean:
	docker images | grep -q "^$(IMAGE_NAME)" && docker image rm $(IMAGE_NAME) || true
	rm -f $(KEEPFILE)

push:
	docker tag $(IMAGE_NAME) $(DOCKER_USERNAME)/$(IMAGE_NAME):$(PUSHTAG)
	docker push $(DOCKER_USERNAME)/$(IMAGE_NAME)

help:
	@echo "Supported build targets:"
	@echo "  $(IMAGE_NAME): builds image"
	@echo "  build: .."
	@echo "  rebuild: .."
	@echo "  bash: launches shell inside container"
	@echo "  clean: removes docker image from local repository"

[ErezBinyamin]

Using make alongside docker is a workflow that's been appreciated by several teams I've worked with professionally and one I am refining personally in my projects. For example: Neverland