Docker Hell

First things first: I love docker!

But there are some pitfalls when building containers with docker-compose:

• Volumes are not mounted and ports not bound during build: This is obvious when you look at man docker build, but not when you’re working with docker-compose.yml. Thus, don’t try to run a service during build, looking at you letsencrypt. Btw; letsencrypt.sh is a good alternative to the fat letsencrypt standard client.
• Make sure that you know your pwd:
  • Paths in docker-compose.yml and Dockerfile are relative to the folder containing the said file.
  • Once you’re in a container your working directory is /.
• Not docker related: Do not assume that software in a debian-package works as described in the project wiki. Granny Debby¹ is old and rusty! Use $ docker exec -ti container_hash bash and check what’s really supported.

• ENTRYPOINT and CMD are not that easy to deal with ². Note that:

  Command line arguments to docker run will be appended after all elements in an exec form ENTRYPOINT, and will override all elements specified using CMD

• Use the following two commands frequently if you don’t want to run out of disk space:

  $ docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)
  

  $ docker rmi -f $(docker images | grep "<none>" | awk "{print \$3}")
  

• Use networking. No pitfall here, JUST DO IT!