% DOCKER(1) Docker User Manuals % Docker Community % JUNE 2014
docker-build - Build a new image from the source code at PATH
docker build [--build-arg[=[]]] [--cpu-shares[=0]] [--cgroup-parent[=CGROUP-PARENT]] [--help] [-f|--file[=PATH/Dockerfile]] [--force-rm[=false]] [--no-cache[=false]] [--pull[=false]] [-q|--quiet[=false]] [--rm[=true]] [-t|--tag[=TAG]] [-m|--memory[=MEMORY]] [--memory-swap[=MEMORY-SWAP]] [--cpu-period[=0]] [--cpu-quota[=0]] [--cpuset-cpus[=CPUSET-CPUS]] [--cpuset-mems[=CPUSET-MEMS]] [--ulimit[=[]]] PATH | URL | -
This will read the Dockerfile from the directory specified in PATH. It also sends any other files and directories found in the current directory to the Docker daemon. The contents of this directory would be used by ADD commands found within the Dockerfile.
Warning, this will send a lot of data to the Docker daemon depending on the contents of the current directory. The build is run by the Docker daemon, not by the CLI, so the whole context must be transferred to the daemon. The Docker CLI reports “Sending build context to Docker daemon” when the context is sent to the daemon.
When the URL to a tarball archive or to a single Dockerfile is given, no context is sent from the client to the Docker daemon. In this case, the Dockerfile at the root of the archive and the rest of the archive will get used as the context of the build. When a Git repository is set as the URL, the repository is cloned locally and then sent as the context.
-f, --file=PATH/Dockerfile Path to the Dockerfile to use. If the path is a relative path and you are building from a local directory, then the path must be relative to that directory. If you are building from a remote URL pointing to either a tarball or a Git repository, then the path must be relative to the root of the remote context. In all cases, the file must be within the build context. The default is Dockerfile.
--build-arg=variable name and value of a buildarg.
For example, if you want to pass a value for http_proxy, use --build-arg=http_proxy="http://some.proxy.url"
Users pass these values at build-time. Docker uses the buildargs as the environment context for command(s) run via the Dockerfile's RUN instruction or for variable expansion in other Dockerfile instructions. This is not meant for passing secret values. Read more about the buildargs instruction
--force-rm=true|false Always remove intermediate containers, even after unsuccessful builds. The default is false.
--no-cache=true|false Do not use cache when building the image. The default is false.
--help Print usage statement
--pull=true|false Always attempt to pull a newer version of the image. The default is false.
-q, --quiet=true|false Suppress the verbose output generated by the containers. The default is false.
--rm=true|false Remove intermediate containers after a successful build. The default is true.
-t, --tag="" Repository name (and optionally a tag) to be applied to the resulting image in case of success
-m, --memory=MEMORY Memory limit
--memory-swap=MEMORY-SWAP Total memory (memory + swap), ‘-1’ to disable swap.
--cpu-shares=0 CPU shares (relative weight).
By default, all containers get the same proportion of CPU cycles. CPU shares is a ‘relative weight’, relative to the default setting of 1024. This default value is defined here:
cat /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/cpu.shares 1024
You can change this proportion by adjusting the container's CPU share weighting relative to the weighting of all other running containers.
To modify the proportion from the default of 1024, use the --cpu-shares flag to set the weighting to 2 or higher.
Container CPU share Flag
{C0} 60% of CPU --cpu-shares=614 (614 is 60% of 1024)
{C1} 40% of CPU --cpu-shares=410 (410 is 40% of 1024)
The proportion is only applied when CPU-intensive processes are running. When tasks in one container are idle, the other containers can use the left-over CPU time. The actual amount of CPU time used varies depending on the number of containers running on the system.
For example, consider three containers, where one has --cpu-shares=1024 and two others have --cpu-shares=512. When processes in all three containers attempt to use 100% of CPU, the first container would receive 50% of the total CPU time. If you add a fourth container with --cpu-shares=1024, the first container only gets 33% of the CPU. The remaining containers receive 16.5%, 16.5% and 33% of the CPU.
Container CPU share Flag CPU time
{C0} 100% --cpu-shares=1024 33%
{C1} 50% --cpu-shares=512 16.5%
{C2} 50% --cpu-shares=512 16.5%
{C4} 100% --cpu-shares=1024 33%
On a multi-core system, the shares of CPU time are distributed across the CPU cores. Even if a container is limited to less than 100% of CPU time, it can use 100% of each individual CPU core.
For example, consider a system with more than three cores. If you start one container {C0} with --cpu-shares=512 running one process, and another container {C1} with --cpu-shares=1024 running two processes, this can result in the following division of CPU shares:
PID container CPU CPU share
100 {C0} 0 100% of CPU0
101 {C1} 1 100% of CPU1
102 {C1} 2 100% of CPU2
--cpu-period=0 Limit the CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) period.
Limit the container‘s CPU usage. This flag causes the kernel to restrict the container’s CPU usage to the period you specify.
--cpu-quota=0 Limit the CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) quota.
By default, containers run with the full CPU resource. This flag causes the kernel to restrict the container's CPU usage to the quota you specify.
--cpuset-cpus=CPUSET-CPUS CPUs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1).
--cpuset-mems=CPUSET-MEMS Memory nodes (MEMs) in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1). Only effective on NUMA systems.
For example, if you have four memory nodes on your system (0-3), use --cpuset-mems=0,1 to ensure the processes in your Docker container only use memory from the first two memory nodes.
--cgroup-parent=CGROUP-PARENT Path to cgroups under which the container's cgroup are created.
If the path is not absolute, the path is considered relative to the cgroups path of the init process. Cgroups are created if they do not already exist.
--ulimit=[] Ulimit options
For more information about ulimit see Setting ulimits in a container
Docker images can be built using the build command and a Dockerfile:
docker build .
During the build process Docker creates intermediate images. In order to keep them, you must explicitly set --rm=false.
docker build --rm=false .
A good practice is to make a sub-directory with a related name and create the Dockerfile in that directory. For example, a directory called mongo may contain a Dockerfile to create a Docker MongoDB image. Likewise, another directory called httpd may be used to store Dockerfiles for Apache web server images.
It is also a good practice to add the files required for the image to the sub-directory. These files will then be specified with the COPY or ADD instructions in the Dockerfile.
Note: If you include a tar file (a good practice), then Docker will automatically extract the contents of the tar file specified within the ADD instruction into the specified target.
A good practice is to give a name to the image you are building. Note that only a-z0-9-_. should be used for consistency. There are no hard rules here but it is best to give the names consideration.
The -t/--tag flag is used to rename an image. Here are some examples:
Though it is not a good practice, image names can be arbitrary:
docker build -t myimage .
A better approach is to provide a fully qualified and meaningful repository, name, and tag (where the tag in this context means the qualifier after the “:”). In this example we build a JBoss image for the Fedora repository and give it the version 1.0:
docker build -t fedora/jboss:1.0 .
The next example is for the “whenry” user repository and uses Fedora and JBoss and gives it the version 2.1 :
docker build -t whenry/fedora-jboss:v2.1 .
If you do not provide a version tag then Docker will assign latest:
docker build -t whenry/fedora-jboss .
When you list the images, the image above will have the tag latest.
So renaming an image is arbitrary but consideration should be given to a useful convention that makes sense for consumers and should also take into account Docker community conventions.
This will clone the specified GitHub repository from the URL and use it as context. The Dockerfile at the root of the repository is used as Dockerfile. This only works if the GitHub repository is a dedicated repository.
docker build github.com/scollier/purpletest
Note: You can set an arbitrary Git repository via the git:// schema.
This will send the URL itself to the Docker daemon. The daemon will fetch the tarball archive, decompress it and use its contents as the build context. The Dockerfile at the root of the archive and the rest of the archive will get used as the context of the build. If you pass an -f PATH/Dockerfile option as well, the system will look for that file inside the contents of the tarball.
docker build -f dev/Dockerfile https://10.10.10.1/docker/context.tar.gz
Note: supported compression formats are ‘xz’, ‘bzip2’, ‘gzip’ and ‘identity’ (no compression).
March 2014, Originally compiled by William Henry (whenry at redhat dot com) based on docker.com source material and internal work. June 2014, updated by Sven Dowideit SvenDowideit@home.org.au June 2015, updated by Sally O'Malley somalley@redhat.com