diff --git a/docs/reference/builder.md b/docs/reference/builder.md index 5dfb7f09f2..8a01d41d52 100644 --- a/docs/reference/builder.md +++ b/docs/reference/builder.md @@ -950,6 +950,29 @@ If you then run `docker stop test`, the container will not exit cleanly - the user 0m 0.04s sys 0m 0.03s +### Understand how CMD and ENTRYPOINT interact + +Both `CMD` and `ENTRYPOINT` instructions define what command gets executed when running a container. +There are few rules that describe their co-operation. + +1. Dockerfile should specify at least one of `CMD` or `ENTRYPOINT` commands. + +2. `ENTRYPOINT` should be defined when using the container as an executable. + +3. `CMD` should be used as a way of defining default arguments for an `ENTRYPOINT` command +or for executing an ad-hoc command in a container. + +4. `CMD` will be overridden when running the container with alternative arguments. + +The table below shows what command is executed for different `ENTRYPOINT` / `CMD` combinations: + +| | No ENTRYPOINT | ENTRYPOINT exec_entry p1_entry | ENTRYPOINT ["exec_entry", "p1_entry"] | +|--------------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------| +| **No CMD** | *error, not allowed* | /bin/sh -c exec_entry p1_entry | exec_entry p1_entry | +| **CMD ["exec_cmd", "p1_cmd"]** | exec_cmd p1_cmd | /bin/sh -c exec_entry p1_entry exec_cmd p1_cmd | exec_entry p1_entry exec_cmd p1_cmd | +| **CMD ["p1_cmd", "p2_cmd"]** | p1_cmd p2_cmd | /bin/sh -c exec_entry p1_entry p1_cmd p2_cmd | exec_entry p1_entry p1_cmd p2_cmd | +| **CMD exec_cmd p1_cmd** | /bin/sh -c exec_cmd p1_cmd | /bin/sh -c exec_entry p1_entry /bin/sh -c exec_cmd p1_cmd | exec_entry p1_entry /bin/sh -c exec_cmd p1_cmd | + ## VOLUME VOLUME ["/data"]