Docker Official Images
Docker, Inc. sponsors a dedicated team that's responsible for reviewing and publishing all content in Docker Official Images. This team works in collaboration with upstream software maintainers, security experts, and the broader Docker community.
While it's preferable to have upstream software authors maintaining their Docker Official Images, this isn't a strict requirement. Creating and maintaining images for Docker Official Images is a collaborative process. It takes place openly on GitHub where participation is encouraged. Anyone can provide feedback, contribute code, suggest process changes, or even propose a new Official Image.
Creating a Docker Official Image
From a high level, an Official Image starts out as a proposal in the form of a set of GitHub pull requests. The following GitHub repositories detail the proposal requirements:
The Docker Official Images team, with help from community contributors, formally review each proposal and provide feedback to the author. This initial review process can be lengthy, often requiring a bit of back-and-forth before the proposal is accepted.
There are subjective considerations during the review process. These subjective concerns boil down to the basic question: "is this image generally useful?" For example, the Python Docker Official Image is "generally useful" to the larger Python developer community, whereas an obscure text adventure game written in Python last week is not.
Once a new proposal is accepted, the author is responsible for keeping their images and documentation up-to-date and responding to user feedback. Docker is responsible for building and publishing the images on Docker Hub. Updates to Docker Official Images follow the same pull request process as for new images, although the review process for updates is more streamlined. The Docker Official Images team ultimately acts as a gatekeeper for all changes, which helps ensures consistency, quality, and security.
Submitting feedback for Docker Official Images
All Docker Official Images contain a User Feedback section in their documentation which covers the details for that specific repository. In most cases, the GitHub repository which contains the Dockerfiles for an Official Image also has an active issue tracker.
General feedback and support questions about Docker Official Images
should be directed to the #general channel in the
Docker Community Slack.
If you're a maintainer or contributor to Docker Official Images and you're
looking for help or advice, use the #docker-library channel on
Libera.Chat IRC.