Difference between RUN and CMD in a Dockerfile - docker

I'm confused about when should I use CMD vs RUN. For example, to execute bash/shell commands (i.e. ls -la) I would always use CMD or is there a situation where I would use RUN? Trying to understand the best practices about these two similar Dockerfile directives.

RUN is an image build step, the state of the container after a RUN command will be committed to the container image. A Dockerfile can have many RUN steps that layer on top of one another to build the image.
CMD is the command the container executes by default when you launch the built image. A Dockerfile will only use the final CMD defined. The CMD can be overridden when starting a container with docker run $image $other_command.
ENTRYPOINT is also closely related to CMD and can modify the way a container is started from an image.

RUN - command triggers while we build the docker image.
CMD - command triggers while we launch the created docker image.

I found this article very helpful to understand the difference between them:
RUN -
RUN instruction allows you to install your application and packages
required for it. It executes any commands on top of the current image
and creates a new layer by committing the results. Often you will find
multiple RUN instructions in a Dockerfile.
CMD -
CMD instruction allows you to set a default command, which will be
executed only when you run container without specifying a command.
If Docker container runs with a command, the default command will be
ignored. If Dockerfile has more than one CMD instruction, all but last
CMD instructions are ignored.

The existing answers cover most of what anyone looking at this question would need. So I'll just cover some niche areas for CMD and RUN.
CMD: Duplicates are Allowed but Wasteful
GingerBeer makes an important point: you won't get any errors if you put in more than one CMD - but it's wasteful to do so. I'd like to elaborate with an example:
FROM busybox
CMD echo "Executing CMD"
CMD echo "Executing CMD 2"
If you build this into an image and run a container in this image, then as GingerBeer states, only the last CMD will be heeded. So the output of that container will be:
Executing CMD 2
The way I think of it is that "CMD" is setting a single global variable for the entire image that is being built, so successive "CMD" statements simply overwrite any previous writes to that global variable, and in the final image that's built the last one to write wins. Since a Dockerfile executes in order from top to bottom, we know that the bottom-most CMD is the one gets this final "write" (metaphorically speaking).
RUN: Commands May not Execute if Images are Cached
A subtle point to notice about RUN is that it's treated as a pure function even if there are side-effects, and is thus cached. What this means is that if RUN had some side effects that don't change the resultant image, and that image has already been cached, the RUN won't be executed again and so the side effects won't happen on subsequent builds. For example, take this Dockerfile:
FROM busybox
RUN echo "Just echo while you work"
First time you run it, you'll get output such as this, with different alphanumeric IDs:
docker build -t example/run-echo .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 9.216kB
Step 1/2 : FROM busybox
---> be5888e67be6
Step 2/2 : RUN echo "Just echo while you work"
---> Running in ed37d558c505
Just echo while you work
Removing intermediate container ed37d558c505
---> 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully built 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully tagged example/run-echo:latest
Notice that the echo statement was executed in the above. Second time you run it, it uses the cache, and you won't see any echo in the output of the build:
docker build -t example/run-echo .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 9.216kB
Step 1/2 : FROM busybox
---> be5888e67be6
Step 2/2 : RUN echo "Just echo while you work"
---> Using cache
---> 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully built 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully tagged example/run-echo:latest

RUN - Install Python , your container now has python burnt into its image
CMD - python hello.py , run your favourite script

Note: Don’t confuse RUN with CMD. RUN actually runs a command and
commits the result; CMD does not execute anything at build time, but
specifies the intended command for the image.
from docker file reference
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#cmd

RUN Command:
RUN command will basically, execute the default command, when we are building the image. It also will commit the image changes for next step.
There can be more than 1 RUN command, to aid in process of building a new image.
CMD Command:
CMD commands will just set the default command for the new container. This will not be executed at build time.
If a docker file has more than 1 CMD commands then all of them are ignored except the last one. As this command will not execute anything but just set the default command.

RUN: Can be many, and it is used in build process, e.g. install multiple libraries
CMD: Can only have 1, which is your execute start point (e.g. ["npm", "start"], ["node", "app.js"])

There has been enough answers on RUN and CMD. I just want to add a few words on ENTRYPOINT. CMD arguments can be overwritten by command line arguments, while ENTRYPOINT arguments are always used.
This article is a good source of information.

Related

Anyway to set the Docker image entrypoint when building the image or some equvalent?

I have a Dockerfile that I use to build the same image but for slightly different purposes. Most of the time I want it to just be an "environment" without a specific entrypoint so that the user just specifies that on the Docker run line:
docker run --rm -it --name ${CONTAINER} ${IMAGE} any_command parameters
But for some applications I want users to download the container and run it without having to set a command.
docker build -t ${IMAGE}:demo (--entrypoint ./demo.sh) <== would be nice to have
Yes, I can have a different Dockerfile for that, or append an entrypoint to the basic Dockerfile during builds, or various other mickey-mouse hacks, but those are all just one more thing that can go wrong, adding complexity, and are workarounds for the essential requirement.
Any ideas? staged builds?
The Dockerfile CMD directive sets the default command. So if your Dockerfile ends with
CMD default_command
then you can run the image in multiple ways
docker run "$IMAGE"
# runs default_command
docker run "$IMAGE" any_command parameters
# runs any_command instead
A container must run a command; you can't "just run a container" with no process in it.
You do not want ENTRYPOINT here since its syntax is noticeably harder to work with at the command line. Your any_command would be passed as arguments to the entrypoint process, rather than replacing the built-in default.

Docker - determining the actual default command for an image: what '/bin/sh -c #(nop) ENTRYPOINT ["xyz"]' mean?

I am trying to figure out the exact command to be executed by default when I run the image as I know that it runs java and I'd like to add memory restrictions to this java command.
Both docker inspect <image> and docker history <image> show the following command for the topmost layer: /bin/sh -c #(nop) ENTRYPOINT ["./bin/run.sh"].
I've seen this answer and I understand from it that everything after '#' is ignored.
Does it mean I should skip this layer and look for the first one without #(nop)?
It does not make much sense for me as this is the only command I could find in docker inspect output.
So, what is the actual command here?
The docker history command provides details about how the image was created, and what actions were performed for each layer of the image. The commented line in the history is in fact a "nop", where nothing was run to create that layer, and in fact you won't see a filesystem layer for that step. Instead, steps like ENTRYPOINT, CMD, ENV, LABEL, etc, modify the metadata associated with an image that you can see in the docker image inspect command.
For more details on how ENTRYPOINT and CMD are related and interact, see the Dockerfile documentation.
Found through experiments that the command is indeed "./bin/run.sh", it is just specified as ENTRYPOINT and not CMD in the Dockerfile.

How to create a custom Docker image by applying a custom patch to a file without having status 'Exited (0)' [duplicate]

I'm confused about when should I use CMD vs RUN. For example, to execute bash/shell commands (i.e. ls -la) I would always use CMD or is there a situation where I would use RUN? Trying to understand the best practices about these two similar Dockerfile directives.
RUN is an image build step, the state of the container after a RUN command will be committed to the container image. A Dockerfile can have many RUN steps that layer on top of one another to build the image.
CMD is the command the container executes by default when you launch the built image. A Dockerfile will only use the final CMD defined. The CMD can be overridden when starting a container with docker run $image $other_command.
ENTRYPOINT is also closely related to CMD and can modify the way a container is started from an image.
RUN - command triggers while we build the docker image.
CMD - command triggers while we launch the created docker image.
I found this article very helpful to understand the difference between them:
RUN -
RUN instruction allows you to install your application and packages
required for it. It executes any commands on top of the current image
and creates a new layer by committing the results. Often you will find
multiple RUN instructions in a Dockerfile.
CMD -
CMD instruction allows you to set a default command, which will be
executed only when you run container without specifying a command.
If Docker container runs with a command, the default command will be
ignored. If Dockerfile has more than one CMD instruction, all but last
CMD instructions are ignored.
The existing answers cover most of what anyone looking at this question would need. So I'll just cover some niche areas for CMD and RUN.
CMD: Duplicates are Allowed but Wasteful
GingerBeer makes an important point: you won't get any errors if you put in more than one CMD - but it's wasteful to do so. I'd like to elaborate with an example:
FROM busybox
CMD echo "Executing CMD"
CMD echo "Executing CMD 2"
If you build this into an image and run a container in this image, then as GingerBeer states, only the last CMD will be heeded. So the output of that container will be:
Executing CMD 2
The way I think of it is that "CMD" is setting a single global variable for the entire image that is being built, so successive "CMD" statements simply overwrite any previous writes to that global variable, and in the final image that's built the last one to write wins. Since a Dockerfile executes in order from top to bottom, we know that the bottom-most CMD is the one gets this final "write" (metaphorically speaking).
RUN: Commands May not Execute if Images are Cached
A subtle point to notice about RUN is that it's treated as a pure function even if there are side-effects, and is thus cached. What this means is that if RUN had some side effects that don't change the resultant image, and that image has already been cached, the RUN won't be executed again and so the side effects won't happen on subsequent builds. For example, take this Dockerfile:
FROM busybox
RUN echo "Just echo while you work"
First time you run it, you'll get output such as this, with different alphanumeric IDs:
docker build -t example/run-echo .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 9.216kB
Step 1/2 : FROM busybox
---> be5888e67be6
Step 2/2 : RUN echo "Just echo while you work"
---> Running in ed37d558c505
Just echo while you work
Removing intermediate container ed37d558c505
---> 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully built 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully tagged example/run-echo:latest
Notice that the echo statement was executed in the above. Second time you run it, it uses the cache, and you won't see any echo in the output of the build:
docker build -t example/run-echo .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 9.216kB
Step 1/2 : FROM busybox
---> be5888e67be6
Step 2/2 : RUN echo "Just echo while you work"
---> Using cache
---> 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully built 6f46f7a393d8
Successfully tagged example/run-echo:latest
RUN - Install Python , your container now has python burnt into its image
CMD - python hello.py , run your favourite script
Note: Don’t confuse RUN with CMD. RUN actually runs a command and
commits the result; CMD does not execute anything at build time, but
specifies the intended command for the image.
from docker file reference
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#cmd
RUN Command:
RUN command will basically, execute the default command, when we are building the image. It also will commit the image changes for next step.
There can be more than 1 RUN command, to aid in process of building a new image.
CMD Command:
CMD commands will just set the default command for the new container. This will not be executed at build time.
If a docker file has more than 1 CMD commands then all of them are ignored except the last one. As this command will not execute anything but just set the default command.
RUN: Can be many, and it is used in build process, e.g. install multiple libraries
CMD: Can only have 1, which is your execute start point (e.g. ["npm", "start"], ["node", "app.js"])
There has been enough answers on RUN and CMD. I just want to add a few words on ENTRYPOINT. CMD arguments can be overwritten by command line arguments, while ENTRYPOINT arguments are always used.
This article is a good source of information.

Can't figure out how to use cmd correctly to execute script in docker

I am trying to figure out how to get the CMD command in dockerfile to run a script on startup for docker run I know that using the RUN command will get the image to prerun that script when building the image but I want it to run the script everytime I run a new container using that image. The script is just a simple script that outputs the current date/time to a file.
Here is the dockerfile that works if I use RUN
# Pull base image
FROM alpine:latest
# gcr.io/dev-ihm-analytics-platform/practice_docker:ulta
WORKDIR /root/
RUN apk --update upgrade && apk add bash
ADD ./script.sh ./
RUN ./script.sh
Here is the same dockerfile that doesnt work with CMD
# Pull base image
FROM alpine:latest
# gcr.io/dev-ihm-analytics-platform/practice_docker:ulta
WORKDIR /root/
RUN apk --update upgrade && apk add bash
ADD ./script.sh ./
CMD ["./script.sh"]
I have tried all sorts of things after the CMD command like ["/script.sh"], ["bash script.sh"], ["bash", "./script.sh"], bash script.sh but I always get an error and I don't know what I am doing wrong. All I want is to
docker run -it name_of_container bash
and then find that the script has executed be seeing there is an output file with the run information in the container once I am inside
There’s three basic ways to do this:
You can RUN ./script.sh. It will happen once, at docker build time, and be baked into your image.
You can CMD ./script.sh. It will happen once, and be the single command the container runs. If you provide some alternate command (docker run ... bash for instance) that runs instead of this CMD.
You can write a custom entrypoint script that does this first-time setup, then runs the CMD or whatever got passed on the command line. The main container process is the entrypoint, and it gets passed the command as arguments. This script (and whatever it does inside) will get run on every startup. This script can look something like
#!/bin/sh
./script.sh
exec "$#"
It needs to be separately COPYd into the image, and then you’d set something like ENTRYPOINT ["./entrypoint.sh"].
(Given the problem as you’ve actually described it — you have a shell script and you want to run it and inspect the file output in an interactive shell — I’d just run it at your local command prompt and not involve Docker at all. This avoids all of these sequencing and filesystem mapping issues.)
There are multiple ways to achieve what you want, but your first attempt, with the RUN ./script.sh line is probably the best.
The CMD and ENTRYPOINT commands are overridable on the command-line as flags to the container run command. So, if you want to ensure that this is run every time you start the container, then it shouldn't be part of the CMD or ENTRYPOINT commands.
Well, iam using the CMD command to start my Java applications and when the container is inside the WORKDIR iam executing the following:
CMD ["/usr/bin/java", "-jar", "-Dspring.profiles.active=default", "/app.jar"]
Have you tried to remove the "." in the CMD command so it looks like that:
CMD ["/script.sh"]
There might be a different syntax when using RUN or CMD.

Delay Docker Container RUN until tox environment is built

I am trying to find a way to delay the docker container to be up until the task in ENTRYPOINT is completed. To explain it further, I have a docker file which has the entry point
ENTRYPOINT ["bash", "-c", "tox", "-e", "docker-server"]
When I run the container using
Docker run -d -t -p 127.0.0.1:8882:8882 datawarehouse
it immediately makes the container up where as tox command is still building the environment. The problem with this is that, if I trigger a cron job or run a python code immediately it will fail because the tox environment is still in the build phase. I want to avoid running anything until the ENTRYPOINT task is complete, can this be achieved in the docker file or in the run command?
yes , in the docker-compose file you can set it to sleep or you can define dependencies.
https://docs.docker.com/compose/startup-order/
https://8thlight.com/blog/dariusz-pasciak/2016/10/17/docker-compose-wait-for-dependencies.html
I dont have an elegant solution, but here is what I did.
RUN <your dependencies>
# Then add a second RUN command with a sleep at the beginning:
RUN sleep 400 && gcloud dataproc jobs submit xxxxxx
Each RUN command will run at a separate container layer on a clean slate, hence the sleep && the actual entry-point command goes together as one logical command.
But as you can see this was Hard coded, change the sleep duration accordingly.
I think that this in an incorrect approach. When a container "start" we need to avoid install dependencies, libraries, etc. The build image process is the moment to do that: We ensure that an image "AAAA" always will "works" if we install any dependencies, build any code in the "build" images process. When a container run, is only for do that, just "run".

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