Tag: docker

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Create single image layers with docker squash

Docker images consist of layers, a mechanism that will result in lower build time for your containers. A detailed article about how layers work on docker can be found in the below url.

https://vsupalov.com/docker-image-layers/

  • Each layer is an image itself, just one without a human-assigned tag. They have auto-generated IDs though.
  • Each layer stores the changes compared to the image it’s based on.
  • An image can consist of a single layer (that’s often the case when the squash command was used).
  • Each instruction in a Dockerfile results in a layer. (Except for multi-stage builds, where usually only the layers in the final image are pushed, or when an image is squashed to a single layer).
  • Layers are used to avoid transferring redundant information and skip build steps which have not changed (according to the Docker cache).

But what if you want to combine all the layers of an image into one single piece? This is why squash has been created.

How –squash works

Once the build is complete, Docker creates a new image loading the diffs from each layer into a single new layer and references all the parent’s layers. In other words: when squashing, Docker will take all the filesystem layers produced by a build and collapse them into a single new layer.

Build image without squash

docker build . -t test

Build image with squash

docker build . -t test1 --squash

In order to use squash command you will need to have experimental features enabled.

Navigate in docker desktop settings and in Windows (which is what I currently use) you should go on Docker Engine tab and change the experimental value to true.

After that you can run your docker command using —squash

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Run docker commands inside docker container

Considering that you have a docker container that runs an operating system, you could install docker inside it in order to use docker commands. Lets take for example the below Dockerfile. This will use the windows server core image and will install docker on it.

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/sdk:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2022
RUN Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing https://download.docker.com/win/static/stable/x86_64/docker-20.10.18.zip -OutFile docker.zip; `
Expand-Archive -Force docker.zip -DestinationPath $Env:ProgramFiles; `
Remove-Item -Force docker.zip

As a result the administrator could execute docker commands by taking a prompt on the container. However not all commands will work if you do not perform the below volume binding. When you spin up a new container using the image that you created with the Dockerfile you should also use the below command. This way you could use docker commands like docker build, docker push etc. 

Windows

-v \\.\pipe\docker_engine:\\.\pipe\docker_engine

Linux

-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
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Pass secrets as ENV variables on docker build – Azure devops

Sometimes you may need not to store your environmental variables on your Dockerfile as they could contain secret values. Especially when using source control you do not want to commit your .env files that they may contain secrets and other sensitive information.

Using the below procedure you can inject secret values as ENV variables on your Dockerfile during the build. Its important to know that you cannot use –env-file with docker build command as it be only used with docker run.

docker run | Docker Documentation

docker build | Docker Documentation

On docker build you can pass –build-arg values in order to set build-time variables. These values don’t persist in the intermediate or final images like ENV values do. You must add --build-arg for each build argument.

In my scenario I wanted to commit an ENV variable permanently on the image but I wanted to avoid storing this value on source control. In more details I wanted to have the APP_KEY as ENV variable inside the container.

The first step was to set this as a secret on the Azure Devops pipeline.

Then you will need to create an ARG definition on the Dockerfile which value will be taken from the Devops pipeline run. Then this value will be passed to the ENV variable APP_KEY. 

ARG APP_KEY
ENV APP_KEY=$APP_KEY

In the Docker command you will need to pass as –build-arg the values that you need (in my case APP_KEY)

    - task: Docker@2
      displayName: build docker image
      inputs:
        containerRegistry: 'registry'
        command: 'build'
        Dockerfile: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/s/myapp/docker/Dockerfile'
        buildContext: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/s/myapp'
        arguments: '-t image.azurecr.io/app-uat:${{parameters.dockertag}} --build-arg APP_KEY=$(APP_KEY)'
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Push multiple docker container images using a loop – Azure DevOps

On a pipeline that I was creating I wanted to push multiple docker images on an Azure container registry based on a list. In order to do that I used the docker@2 task on a loop providing the images that I had to push as a parameter. Code is attached below.

trigger:
– none
pr: none
parameters:
– name: containerlist
type: object
default: ["core/image1","core/image2","core/image3","core/image4"]
– name: DockerPushID
type: string
pool:
name: demo-app
stages:
– stage: containers
displayName: Push containers to container registry $(registry)
jobs:
– job: pushcontainers
displayName: Push containers on testexample.azurecr.io
steps:
– checkout: none
– ${{ each container in parameters.containerlist }}:
– task: Docker@2
displayName: pushing image ${{container}}
inputs:
containerRegistry: 'registryconnection'
repository: '${{container}}'
command: 'push'
tags: |
current-${{parameters.DockerPushID}}
current-latest
view raw azure devops – push multiple images on azure container registry hosted with ❤ by GitHub

This task will run steps based on the images you provide on the parameters list. An important note is that you need to have the image named accordingly in order to get a successful result. For example if you need to push on geralexgr.azurecr.io you will need to have your images named as below.

geralexgr.azurecr.io/image1:current-latest
geralexgr.azurecr.io/image2:current-latest

Else you may notice some failures indicating the below.

The push refers to repository [***/kati/image1] 
An image does not exist locally with the tag: ***/kati/image1

A successful run of the pipeline.

Additional information regarding loops and expressions on Azure DevOps pipelines:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/expressions?view=azure-devops#functions

Video tutorial on YouTube: