Overview of best practices for writing Dockerfiles

This topic covers recommended best practices and methods for building efficient images. It provides general guidelines for your Dockerfiles and more specific best practices for each Dockerfile instruction.

What is a Dockerfile?

Docker builds images automatically by reading the instructions from a Dockerfile which is a text file that contains all commands, in order, needed to build a given image. A Dockerfile adheres to a specific format and set of instructions which you can find at Dockerfile reference.

A Docker image consists of read-only layers each of which represents a Dockerfile instruction. The layers are stacked and each one is a delta of the changes from the previous layer.

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1

FROM ubuntu:22.04
COPY . /app
RUN make /app
CMD python /app/app.py

In the example above, each instruction creates one layer:

FROM creates a layer from the ubuntu:22.04 Docker image.
COPY adds files from your Docker client's current directory.
RUN builds your application with make.
CMD specifies what command to run within the container.

When you run an image and generate a container, you add a new writable layer, also called the container layer, on top of the underlying layers. All changes made to the running container, such as writing new files, modifying existing files, and deleting files, are written to this writable container layer.

Additional resources:

Examples of Docker Official Images

These Official Images have exemplary Dockerfiles: