alpinelinux / Docker Alpine
Programming Languages
= docker-alpine
:ao: alpinelinux.org :hubp: _/alpine :hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/{hubp}/
image:https://img.shields.io/docker/stars/{hubp}.svg[link={hub}] image:https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/{hubp}.svg[link={hub}]
The official Docker image for https://{ao}[Alpine Linux]. The image is only 5MB and has access to a package repository that is much more featureful than other BusyBox based images.
ubuntu
base image for most projects.
The size savings over ubuntu
and other bases are huge:
[source]
== Why
Docker images today are big.
Usually much larger than they need to be.
There are a lot of ways to make them smaller, but the Docker populace still jumps to the REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE alpine latest 961769676411 4 weeks ago 5.58MB ubuntu latest 2ca708c1c9cc 2 days ago 64.2MB debian latest c2c03a296d23 9 days ago 114MB centos latest 67fa590cfc1c 4 weeks ago 202MB
progrium/busybox
which get us close to a minimal container and package system, but these particular BusyBox builds piggyback on the OpenWRT package index, which is often lacking and not tailored towards generic everyday applications.
Alpine Linux has a much more featureful and up to date https://pkgs.{ao}[Package Index]:
[source]
There are images such as $ docker run progrium/busybox opkg-install nodejs Unknown package 'nodejs'. Collected errors:
- opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package nodejs.
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.9/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz fetch http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.9/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz (1/7) Installing ca-certificates (20190108-r0) (2/7) Installing c-ares (1.15.0-r0) (3/7) Installing libgcc (8.3.0-r0) (4/7) Installing http-parser (2.8.1-r0) (5/7) Installing libstdc++ (8.3.0-r0) (6/7) Installing libuv (1.23.2-r0) (7/7) Installing nodejs (10.14.2-r0) Executing busybox-1.29.3-r10.trigger Executing ca-certificates-20190108-r0.trigger OK: 31 MiB in 21 packages
$ docker run alpine apk add --no-cache nodejs fetchThis makes Alpine Linux a great image base for utilities, as well as production applications. https://www.{ao}/about/[Read more about Alpine Linux here] and it will become obvious how its mantra fits in right at home with Docker images.
NOTE: All of the example outputs above were last generated/updated on May 3rd 2019.
== Usage Stop doing this: [source, dockerfile]
&& DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -qy mysql-client
&& apt-get clean
&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt
ENTRYPOINT ["mysql"]
FROM ubuntu-debootstrap:14.04
RUN apt-get update -q This took 28 seconds to build and yields a 169 MB image. Start doing this: [source, dockerfile]
FROM alpine:3.9 RUN apk add --no-cache mysql-client ENTRYPOINT ["mysql"]
Only 4 seconds to build and results in a 41 MB image!