What is the difference between `docker-compose build` and `docker build`? - docker

What is the difference between docker-compose build and docker build?
Suppose in a dockerized project path there is a docker-compose.yml file:
docker-compose build
And
docker build

docker-compose can be considered a wrapper around the docker CLI (in fact it is another implementation in python as said in the comments) in order to gain time and avoid 500 characters-long lines (and also start multiple containers at the same time). It uses a file called docker-compose.yml in order to retrieve parameters.
You can find the reference for the docker-compose file format here.
So basically docker-compose build will read your docker-compose.yml, look for all services containing the build: statement and run a docker build for each one.
Each build: can specify a Dockerfile, a context and args to pass to docker.
To conclude with an example docker-compose.yml file :
version: '3.2'
services:
database:
image: mariadb
restart: always
volumes:
- ./.data/sql:/var/lib/mysql
web:
build:
dockerfile: Dockerfile-alpine
context: ./web
ports:
- 8099:80
depends_on:
- database
When calling docker-compose build, only the web target will need an image to be built. The docker build command would look like :
docker build -t web_myproject -f Dockerfile-alpine ./web

docker-compose build will build the services in the docker-compose.yml file.
https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/build/
docker build will build the image defined by Dockerfile.
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/build/

Basically, docker-compose is a better way to use docker than just a docker command.
If the question here is if docker-compose build command, will build a zip kind of thing containing multiple images, which otherwise would have been built separately with usual Dockerfile, then the thinking is wrong.
Docker-compose build, will build individual images, by going into individual service entry in docker-compose.yml.
With docker images, command, we can see all the individual images being saved as well.
The real magic is docker-compose up.
This one will basically create a network of interconnected containers, that can talk to each other with name of container similar to a hostname.

Adding to the first answer...
You can give the image name and container name under the service definition.
e.g. for the service called 'web' in the below docker-compose example, you can give the image name and container name explicitly, so that docker does not have to use the defaults.
Otherwise the image name that docker will use will be the concatenation of the folder (Directory) and the service name. e.g. myprojectdir_web
So it is better to explicitly put the desired image name that will be generated when docker build command is executed.
e.g.
image: mywebserviceImage
container_name: my-webServiceImage-Container
example docker-compose.yml file :
version: '3.2'
services:
web:
build:
dockerfile: Dockerfile-alpine
context: ./web
ports:
- 8099:80
image: mywebserviceImage
container_name: my-webServiceImage-Container
depends_on:
- database

Few additional words about the difference between docker build and docker-compose build.
Both have an option for building images using an existing image as a cache of layers.
with docker build, the option is --cache-from <image>
with docker-composer, there is a tag cache_from in the build section.
Unfortunately, up until now, at this level, images made by one are not compatible with the other as a cache of layers (Ids are not compatible).
However, docker-compose v1.25.0 (2019-11-18), introduces an experimental feature COMPOSE_DOCKER_CLI_BUILD so that docker-compose uses native docker builder (therefore, images made by docker build can be used as a cache of layers for docker-compose build)

Related

docker compose pull newest image

I have a few microservices. Jenkins builds these projects, creates docker images and publishes them to the artifactory.
I have another project for automation testing which is using these docker images.
We have a docker-compose file that has all the configuration of all microservice images.
Following is sample docker-compose
version: "1.0"
services:
my-service:
image: .../my-service:1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-1
container_name: 'my-service'
restart: always
volumes:
...
ports:
...
...
all these are working fine.
Now to update the image then I have to manually change the image tag (1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-2) in docker-compose.
This is an issue because this involves human intervention. Is there any way to pull the newest docker image without any change in docker-compose?
NOTE - I cannot create images with the latest tag. Getting issue when publishing image with the same name in the artifactory (unauthorized: The client does not have permission for manifest: Not enough permissions to delete/overwrite artifact).
Well What actually you can do is, use environment variables substitutions in cli commands (envsubst). Let me explain an escenario as example.
First in the docker-compose.yaml you define an environmet variable, as a tag of the container
version: "3"
services:
my-service:
image: .../my-service:$TAG
container_name: 'my-service'
restart: always
volumes:
...
ports:
...
...
Second, with cli command (or terminal) you define an environment variable, with you version. This part is important because here you add your version tag to the container (and you can execute bash commands to extract some id, or last git commit or what ever you want to execute as tag for the container, i give you some ideas)
export TAG=1.0.0-SNAPSHOT-1
export TAG="$(bash /path/to/script/tag.sh)"
export TAG="$(git log --format="%H" -n 1)"
And the third part and last one is for execute "envsubst" and then execute docker-compose.yaml to deploy your container. Note the pipe |, very important for execution.
envsubst < docker-compose.yaml | docker-compose up -d
link to envsubst
I use this format to deploy tagged containers in kubernetes, but the idea must be the same with docker compose.
envsubst < deployment.yaml | kubectl apply -f -
And change version to 3 in the docker-compose.yaml. Good luck

How to share prepared files on build stage between containers with docker compose

I have 2 services: nginx and web
When I build web image I build the frontend via the command npm install && npm run build
But I need prepared files in both containers: in the web and in the nginx.
How to share files between containers (images)? I can't simply use volumes, because they will be mounted only in runtime.
The Dockerfile COPY directive can copy files from an arbitrary image. While it's most commonly used in multi-stage builds, you can use it with any image, even one you built yourself.
Say your docker-compose.yml file looks like:
version: '3.8'
services:
web:
build: .
image: my/web
nginx:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: Dockerfile.nginx
ports: [8000:80]
Note that we've explicitly given the web image a name; also notice that there are no volumes: in this setup.
In the proxy image, we can then copy files out of that image:
# Dockerfile.nginx
FROM nginx
COPY --from=my/web /app/static /usr/share/nginx/html
The only complication here is that Compose doesn't know that one image is built off of the other. You'll probably have to manually tell it to rebuild the application image so that it gets built before the proxy image.
docker-compose build web
docker-compose build
docker-compose up -d
You can use this in a more production-oriented setup to deploy this application without having the code directly available. You can create a base docker-compose.yml that names an image: for both containers, and then add a separate docker-compose.override.yml file that has the build: blocks. After running docker-compose build twice as above, you can docker-compose push the built images, and then run this container stack on your production system getting the images from the registry; without a local copy of the source tree and without volumes.

Access container_name in Dockerfile (from docker-compose)

I have setup a docker-compose project which are creating multiple images:
cache_server:
image: current_timezone/full-supervisord-cache-server:1.00
container_name: renamed-varnish-cache
networks:
- network_frontend
build:
context: "./all-services/"
dockerfile: "./cache-server/Dockerfile.cacheserver.varnish"
args:
- DOCKER_CONTAINER_USERNAME=username
ports:
- "6081:6081"
- "6082:6082"
When I use docker-compose up -f file1.yml file2.override.yml I will then get the containers: in the case of above one it will be named : renamed-varnish-cache
In the corresponding Dockerfile (./nginx-proxy/Dockerfile.proxy.nginx) I want to be able use the container_name property defined in the docker-compose.yml shown above.
When the containers are created I want to update the Varnish configurations inline inside Dockerfile : RUN sed -i "s|webserver_container_name|renamed-varnish-cache|g" /etc/varnish/default.vcl"
For instance:
backend webserver_container_name{
.host = "webserver_container_name";
.port = "8080";
}
To: I anticipate I will have to replace the - with _ for the backend:
backend renamed_varnish_cache{
.host = "renamed-varnish-cache";
.port = "8080";
}
Is there a way to receive the docker-compose named items as variables inside Dockerfile?
In core Docker, there are two separate concepts. An image is a built version of some piece of software packaged together with its dependencies; a container is a running instance of an image. There are separate docker build and docker run commands to build images and launch containers, and you can launch multiple containers from a single image.
Docker Compose wraps these concepts. In particular, the build: block corresponds to the image-build step, and that is what invokes the Dockerfile. None of the other Compose options are available or visible inside the Dockerfile. You cannot access the container_name: or environment: variables or volumes: because those don't exist at this point in the build lifecycle; you also cannot contact other Compose services from inside the Dockerfile.
It's pretty common to have multiple containers run off the same image if they have largely the same code base but need a different top-level command. One example is a Python Django application that needs Celery background workers; you'd have the same project structure but a different command for the Celery worker.
version: '3.8'
services:
web:
build: .
image: my/django-app
worker:
image: my/django-app
command: celery worker ...
Now with this stack you can docker-compose build to build the one image, and then run docker-compose up to launch both containers from that image. (During the build you can't know what the container names will be, and there will be two container names so you can't just use one in the Dockerfile.)
At a design level, this means that you often can't include configuration-type settings in the image itself (other containers' hostnames, user IDs for host-shared filesystems). If your application lets you specify these things as environment variables, that's the easiest option. You can use bind mounts (volumes:) to inject whole config files. If neither of these things work for you, you can use an entrypoint script to rewrite the config file.

Docker-compose for multi-stage build?

Let's say that we have docker-compose.yml which build few services with Dockerfile's in different locations like this:
version: '3.4'
services:
service1:
build: ./service1-dir
service2:
build: ./service2-dir
Let's say that in Dockerfile of service1 we have some folder that we already copy.
Can I pass this folder to docker file of service2?
With another words - can I use multi-stage build technique to pass layers between different Dockerfiles or multi-stage build should be only in one Dockerfile?
You can split things up the way you describe; it'll probably be more robust to do things in two stages in a single Dockerfile, or to do the primary part of your build using host tools.
There are two essential parts to this. The first is that, in your docker-compose.yml file, if you specify both a build: description and an image: name, then Docker Compose will tag the built image for you. The second is that the Dockerfile COPY directive can copy content --from a preceding build stage or from an arbitrary other image. So if your docker-compose.yml says
version: '3'
services:
service1:
build: ./service1-dir
image: me/service1
service2:
build: ./service2-dir
and service2-dir/Dockerfile says
COPY --from=me/service1 /app/somefile .
it will copy content from one image to the other.
The one challenge here is that docker-compose build doesn't specify the order the images are built in. If it builds service2 first, it will get old content from the previous build of service1 (or fail if it's the initial build). To do this reliably, you need to do something like
docker-compose build service1
docker-compose build
docker-compose up -d
If the build sequence isn't too complex, just including it in both Dockerfiles could make sense. It can also work to built whatever artifacts you need on the host, and have your Dockerfiles copy that in as-is instead of building it themselves; this works well especially if that content is platform-neutral (Java .jar files, HTML/Javascript/CSS files from a Webpack build for a browser application).

Start particular service from docker-compose

I am new to Docker and have docker-compose.yml which is containing many services and iI need to start one particular service. I have docker-compose.yml file with information:
version: '2'
services:
postgres:
image: ${ARTIFACTORY_URL}/datahub/postgres:${BUILD_NUMBER}
restart: "no"
volumes:
- /etc/passwd:/etc/passwd
volumes_from:
- libs
depends_on:
- libs
setup:
image: ${ARTIFACTORY_URL}/setup:${B_N}
restart: "no"
volumes:
- ${HOME}:/usr/local/
I am able to call docker-compose.yml file using command:
docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d --no-build
But I need to start "setup service" in docker-compose file:
How can I do this?
It's very easy:
docker compose up <service-name>
In your case:
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up setup -d
To stop the service, then you don't need to specify the service name:
docker compose down
will do.
Little side note: if you are in the directory where the docker-compose.yml file is located, then docker-compose will use it implicitly, there's no need to add it as a parameter.
You need to provide it in the following situations:
the file is not in your current directory
the file name is different from the default one, eg. myconfig.yml
As far as I understand your question, you have multiple services in docker-compose but want to deploy only one.
docker-compose should be used for multi-container Docker applications. From official docs :
Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker
applications.
IMHO, you should run your service image separately with docker run command.
PS: If you are asking about recreating only the container whose image is changed among the multiple services in your docker-compose file, then docker-compose handles that for you.

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