Docker container commands: which goes where?

Published on by paranoidmike

So far in my DevOps class I’ve encountered three separate places where we use parameterized commands to perform some of the Docker setup and runtime execution.

I’ve been having a conceptual crisis of confidence because I don’t definitively understand which kinds of commands go where.  So this is my exercise in deciphering the lay of the land.

Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml, docker-compose run

Here’s what I think I have inferred from what we’ve done in class tutorials:

  • Dockerfile
    • can contain one or more commands prefaced with the RUN directive
    • these will run commands outside of the to-be-built Docker container, to setup the appropriate files and environment to make the build successful
    • presumably you should do as little as necessary out here
    • example command: RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
  • docker-compose.yml
    • configures the set of containers that will be built and run together (one or more)
    • command to be run once the container is up and running
    • ?? Only one command can be configured per container ??
    • example command: command: gunicorn fooapi.wsgi:application -b :8000
  • docker-compose run [container_name]
    • commands can be run one time, arbitrarily, outside the build process itself
    • example command: docker-compose run web django-admin.py startproject fooapi .

My Confusions

  1. If my web application needs to have all the python packages installed as dependencies, why isn’t pip install -r requirements.txt being run once the appropriate container is up and running?
  2. If the use of a RUN command in Dockerfile creates a scratch space outside all containers, why would I need to install python dependencies to be able to create a PostgreSQL container cf. Assignment 3? [Leaving aside the advice I’ve heard that putting databases in containers isn’t generally necessary or advisable]
  3. What is the net effect of running commands inside the “docker-compose run [container_name]” wrapper?  Why couldn’t/shouldn’t I run that command as a RUN command from the Dockerfile, and then copy the resulting files into the /code folder that we’re creating in Assignment 3?
  4. Does docker-compose run run commands inside an already-built container?

As I learn answers to these questions, with any luck I’ll return here to annotate what I’ve learned.

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