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Docker Notes for n00bs
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docker-n00b.md

Basics

Images are read-only templates, but you can diff and push them to save many versions. Containers are instances of images, that are also directories and usually a single running process.

Images can be layered, you start from a base and make changes. Containers are versioned so that you can make changes and save the filesystem state as a new Image.

You can poke around in a container before starting it running, and after it's died. You can attach or exec a shell into a container to find out what's going on.

Network is also virtualized so that several containers can communicate with each other, but this isn't visible outside unless configured to be.

Images

# Dockerfile
docker build -t $IMAGE
docker images
docker rmi $IMAGE

# find pre-made images
docker search $TERM

Containers

docker run --name $CONTAINER -it $IMAGE
docker ps
# see history
docker ps -a
docker stop $CONTAINER

docker container ls -a
docker rm $CONTAINER

Debugging

docker logs $CONTAINER
docker attach $CONTAINER   # warning control-C kill
docker exec -it $CONTAINER /bin/bash  # if running

# quick little commands to inspect running container
docker exec CONTAINER env
docker exec CONTAINER ls
docker exec CONTAINER ps fax
docker exec CONTAINER ip addr show eth0

# if not running, starts a container and shells in
# note entrypoint before image!
docker run -it --entrypoint /bin/bash $CONTAINER
docker run -it $CONTAINER sh  # works with caveats

# same but as root
docker run -u root -it --entrypoint /bin/bash $IMAGE

docker exec CONTAINER apt install net-tools  # for netstat
docker exec CONTAINER netstat -natp
apt install -y binutils  # shell stuff
apt install -y busybox  # same but lighter
# others: procps, ..

# check on a container's port mapping
docker port $CONTAINER

# entrypoints often end with exec "$@" so they can run whatever, eg.
docker run -it $CONTAINER python manage.py migrate
docker run -it $CONTAINER python manage.py /bin/bash

# low-level details for many docker objects
# eg. volume mounts
docker inspect $CONTAINER

# general: hack up entrypoint.sh for debugging

Iterating

docker diff $CONTAINER
docker commit $CONTAINER $IMAGE[:tag]
docker images
docker rmi $IMAGE

Jumping into the middle of a build to explore:

Building stress-grpc-component-tests
Step 1/7 : FROM docker.artifactory.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.1
 ---> 006ded9ddf29
Step 2/7 : COPY tests/Component/*.csproj /all/tests/Component/
 ---> Using cache
 ---> e66c8b271d16
Step 3/7 : WORKDIR /all/tests/Component
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 4d4c013a1322
Step 4/7 : RUN dotnet restore --source https://artifactory.com/api/nuget/nuget-all
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 138c448d6f4a
Step 5/7 : COPY tests/Component /all/tests/Component
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 9674619ec356
Step 6/7 : RUN dotnet build --no-restore -c Debug
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 590e931b538f
Step 7/7 : ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "test", "--no-restore", "--no-build"]
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 787003ca8bca

Successfully built 787003ca8bca
Successfully tagged docker.artifactory.com/stress-test/stress-grpc-component-tests:latest

C:\src\stress-test (cgt-test-4)
$ docker run 138c448d6f4a -it
C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\docker-cli\tools\docker.exe: Error response from daemon: OCI runtime create failed: container_linux.go:349: starting container process caused "exec: \"-it\": executable file not found in $PATH": unknown.

C:\src\stress-test (cgt-test-4)
$ docker run -it 138c448d6f4a
root@c3b817abd422:/all/tests/Component# ls /api
ls: cannot access '/api': No such file or directory
root@c3b817abd422:/all/tests/Component# cd /all/tests/Component/
root@c3b817abd422:/all/tests/Component# ls
Stress.Grpc.Component.Tests.csproj  obj
root@c3b817abd422:/all/tests/Component# ls obj
Stress.Grpc.Component.Tests.csproj.nuget.dgspec.json  Stress.Grpc.Component.Tests.csproj.nuget.g.targets  project.nuget.cache
Stress.Grpc.Component.Tests.csproj.nuget.g.props      project.assets.json
root@c3b817abd422:/all/tests/Component#

Compose

docker-compose build
docker-compose create
docker-compose start
docker-compose ps
docker-compose logs

# or just
docker-compose up
docker-compose down

General

  • Order of arguments is very important!
  • On dev if you have a docker-compose with a "volume" you don't need a full rebuild for changes to our code.
  • Warning: things have changed in docker and compose, so old tutorials are sometimes a bit wrong.
  • Permissions and users can be super confusing, beware. |-
  • Don't trust non-official pkgs, look closely

Gotchas

  • nginx: needs to run as root, then switches user on it's own, so be careful to use sudo in entrypoint.sh
  • CMD only runs the last one and silently ignores earlier. Also "CMD foo > out.bar" is "CMD ["sh", "-c", ..."

Reference

2020-08-12

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