diff --git a/docs/sources/articles/dockerfile_best-practices.md b/docs/sources/articles/dockerfile_best-practices.md index 21334c16e4..4c939c1d32 100644 --- a/docs/sources/articles/dockerfile_best-practices.md +++ b/docs/sources/articles/dockerfile_best-practices.md @@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ uses. Be strategic and cautious about the number of layers you use. Whenever possible, ease later changes by sorting multi-line arguments alphanumerically. This will help you avoid duplication of packages and make the list much easier to update. This also makes PRs a lot easier to read and -review. Adding a space before a backslash (`\`) helps as well. +review. Adding a space before a backslash (`\`) helps as well. Here’s an example from the [`buildpack-deps` image](https://github.com/docker-library/buildpack-deps): @@ -291,32 +291,32 @@ auto-extraction capability, you should always use `COPY`. ### [`ENTRYPOINT`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#entrypoint) -The best use for `ENTRYPOINT` is as a helper script. Using `ENTRYPOINT` for -other tasks can make your code harder to understand. For example, +The best use for `ENTRYPOINT` is to set the image's main command, allowing that +image to be run as though it was that command (and then use `CMD` as the +default flags). -....docker run -it official-image bash +Let's start with an example of an image for the command line tool `s3cmd`: -is much easier to understand than + ENTRYPOINT ["s3cmd"] + CMD ["--help"] -....docker run -it --entrypoint bash official-image -i +Now the image can be run like this to show the command's help: -This is especially true for new Docker users, who might naturally assume the -above command will work fine. In cases where an image uses `ENTRYPOINT` for -anything other than just a wrapper script, the command will fail and the -beginning user will then be forced to learn about `ENTRYPOINT` and -`--entrypoint`. + $ docker run s3cmd -In order to avoid a situation where commands are run without clear visibility -to the user, make sure your script ends with something like `exec "$@"` (see -[the exec builtin command](http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/commands/builtin/exec)). -After the entrypoint completes, the script will transparently bootstrap the command -invoked by the user, making what has been run clear to the user (for example, -`docker run -it mysql mysqld --some --flags` will transparently run -`mysqld --some --flags` after `ENTRYPOINT` runs `initdb`). +Or using the right parameters to execute a command: -For example, let’s look at the `Dockerfile` for the -[Postgres Official Image](https://github.com/docker-library/postgres). -It refers to the following script: + $ docker run s3cmd ls s3://mybucket + +This is useful because the image name can double as a reference to the binary as +shown in the command above. + +The `ENTRYPOINT` instruction can also be used in combination with a helper +script, allowing it to function in a similar way to the command above, even +when starting the tool may require more than one step. + +For example, the [Postgres Official Image](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/postgres/) +uses the following script as its `ENTRYPOINT`: ```bash #!/bin/bash @@ -335,12 +335,34 @@ fi exec "$@" ``` -That script then gets copied into the container and run via `ENTRYPOINT` on -container startup: +> **Note**: +> This script uses [the `exec` Bash command](http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/commands/builtin/exec) +> so that the final running application becomes the container's PID 1. This allows +> the application to receive any Unix signals sent to the container. +> See the [`ENTRYPOINT`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#ENTRYPOINT) +> help for more details. + + +The helper script is copied into the container and run via `ENTRYPOINT` on +container start: COPY ./docker-entrypoint.sh / ENTRYPOINT ["/docker-entrypoint.sh"] +This script allows the user to interact with Postgres in several ways. + +It can simply start Postgres: + + $ docker run postgres + +Or, it can be used to run Postgres and pass parameters to the server: + + $ docker run postgres postres --help + +Lastly, it could also be used to start a totally different tool, such Bash: + + $ docker run --rm -it postgres bash + ### [`VOLUME`](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#volume) The `VOLUME` instruction should be used to expose any database storage area, diff --git a/docs/sources/reference/builder.md b/docs/sources/reference/builder.md index d0c928188d..ca25072900 100644 --- a/docs/sources/reference/builder.md +++ b/docs/sources/reference/builder.md @@ -626,8 +626,7 @@ ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/sbin/apache2ctl", "-D", "FOREGROUND"] If you need to write a starter script for a single executable, you can ensure that the final executable receives the Unix signals by using `exec` and `gosu` -(see [the Dockerfile best practices](/articles/dockerfile_best-practices/#entrypoint) -for more details): +commands: ```bash #!/bin/bash