moby--moby/docs/reference/commandline/build.md

build

Usage: docker build [OPTIONS] PATH | URL | -

Build a new image from the source code at PATH

  -f, --file=""            Name of the Dockerfile (Default is 'PATH/Dockerfile')
  --force-rm=false         Always remove intermediate containers
  --no-cache=false         Do not use cache when building the image
  --pull=false             Always attempt to pull a newer version of the image
  -q, --quiet=false        Suppress the verbose output generated by the containers
  --rm=true                Remove intermediate containers after a successful build
  -t, --tag=""             Repository name (and optionally a tag) for the image
  -m, --memory=""          Memory limit for all build containers
  --memory-swap=""         Total memory (memory + swap), `-1` to disable swap
  -c, --cpu-shares         CPU Shares (relative weight)
  --cpuset-mems=""         MEMs in which to allow execution, e.g. `0-3`, `0,1`
  --cpuset-cpus=""         CPUs in which to allow execution, e.g. `0-3`, `0,1`
  --cgroup-parent=""       Optional parent cgroup for the container
  --ulimit=[]              Ulimit options

Builds Docker images from a Dockerfile and a "context". A build's context is the files located in the specified PATH or URL. The build process can refer to any of the files in the context. For example, your build can use an ADD instruction to reference a file in the context.

The URL parameter can specify the location of a Git repository; the repository acts as the build context. The system recursively clones the repository and its submodules using a git clone --depth 1 --recursive command. This command runs in a temporary directory on your local host. After the command succeeds, the directory is sent to the Docker daemon as the context. Local clones give you the ability to access private repositories using local user credentials, VPNs, and so forth.

Git URLs accept context configuration in their fragment section, separated by a colon :. The first part represents the reference that Git will check out, this can be either a branch, a tag, or a commit SHA. The second part represents a subdirectory inside the repository that will be used as a build context.

For example, run this command to use a directory called docker in the branch container:

  $ docker build https://github.com/docker/rootfs.git#container:docker

The following table represents all the valid suffixes with their build contexts:

Build Syntax Suffix	Commit Used	Build Context Used
myrepo.git	refs/heads/master	/
myrepo.git#mytag	refs/tags/mytag	/
myrepo.git#mybranch	refs/heads/mybranch	/
myrepo.git#abcdef	sha1 = abcdef	/
myrepo.git#:myfolder	refs/heads/master	/myfolder
myrepo.git#master:myfolder	refs/heads/master	/myfolder
myrepo.git#mytag:myfolder	refs/tags/mytag	/myfolder
myrepo.git#mybranch:myfolder	refs/heads/mybranch	/myfolder
myrepo.git#abcdef:myfolder	sha1 = abcdef	/myfolder

Instead of specifying a context, you can pass a single Dockerfile in the URL or pipe the file in via STDIN. To pipe a Dockerfile from STDIN:

docker build - < Dockerfile

If you use STDIN or specify a URL, the system places the contents into a file called Dockerfile, and any -f, --file option is ignored. In this scenario, there is no context.

By default the docker build command will look for a Dockerfile at the root of the build context. The -f, --file, option lets you specify the path to an alternative file to use instead. This is useful in cases where the same set of files are used for multiple builds. The path must be to a file within the build context. If a relative path is specified then it must to be relative to the current directory.

In most cases, it's best to put each Dockerfile in an empty directory. Then, add to that directory only the files needed for building the Dockerfile. To increase the build's performance, you can exclude files and directories by adding a .dockerignore file to that directory as well. For information on creating one, see the .dockerignore file.

If the Docker client loses connection to the daemon, the build is canceled. This happens if you interrupt the Docker client with ctrl-c or if the Docker client is killed for any reason.

Note: Currently only the "run" phase of the build can be canceled until pull cancellation is implemented).

Return code

On a successful build, a return code of success 0 will be returned. When the build fails, a non-zero failure code will be returned.

There should be informational output of the reason for failure output to STDERR:

$ docker build -t fail .
Sending build context to Docker daemon 2.048 kB
Sending build context to Docker daemon
Step 0 : FROM busybox
 ---> 4986bf8c1536
Step 1 : RUN exit 13
 ---> Running in e26670ec7a0a
INFO[0000] The command [/bin/sh -c exit 13] returned a non-zero code: 13
$ echo $?
1

See also:

Dockerfile Reference.

Examples

$ docker build .
Uploading context 10240 bytes
Step 1 : FROM busybox
Pulling repository busybox
 ---> e9aa60c60128MB/2.284 MB (100%) endpoint: https://cdn-registry-1.docker.io/v1/
Step 2 : RUN ls -lh /
 ---> Running in 9c9e81692ae9
total 24
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        4.0K Mar 12  2013 bin
drwxr-xr-x    5 root     root        4.0K Oct 19 00:19 dev
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        4.0K Oct 19 00:19 etc
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        4.0K Nov 15 23:34 lib
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           3 Mar 12  2013 lib64 -> lib
dr-xr-xr-x  116 root     root           0 Nov 15 23:34 proc
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           3 Mar 12  2013 sbin -> bin
dr-xr-xr-x   13 root     root           0 Nov 15 23:34 sys
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        4.0K Mar 12  2013 tmp
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        4.0K Nov 15 23:34 usr
 ---> b35f4035db3f
Step 3 : CMD echo Hello world
 ---> Running in 02071fceb21b
 ---> f52f38b7823e
Successfully built f52f38b7823e
Removing intermediate container 9c9e81692ae9
Removing intermediate container 02071fceb21b

This example specifies that the PATH is ., and so all the files in the local directory get tard and sent to the Docker daemon. The PATH specifies where to find the files for the "context" of the build on the Docker daemon. Remember that the daemon could be running on a remote machine and that no parsing of the Dockerfile happens at the client side (where you're running docker build). That means that all the files at PATH get sent, not just the ones listed to ADD in the Dockerfile.

The transfer of context from the local machine to the Docker daemon is what the docker client means when you see the "Sending build context" message.

If you wish to keep the intermediate containers after the build is complete, you must use --rm=false. This does not affect the build cache.

$ docker build .
Uploading context 18.829 MB
Uploading context
Step 0 : FROM busybox
 ---> 769b9341d937
Step 1 : CMD echo Hello world
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 99cc1ad10469
Successfully built 99cc1ad10469
$ echo ".git" > .dockerignore
$ docker build .
Uploading context  6.76 MB
Uploading context
Step 0 : FROM busybox
 ---> 769b9341d937
Step 1 : CMD echo Hello world
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 99cc1ad10469
Successfully built 99cc1ad10469

This example shows the use of the .dockerignore file to exclude the .git directory from the context. Its effect can be seen in the changed size of the uploaded context. The builder reference contains detailed information on creating a .dockerignore file

$ docker build -t vieux/apache:2.0 .

This will build like the previous example, but it will then tag the resulting image. The repository name will be vieux/apache and the tag will be 2.0

$ docker build - < Dockerfile

This will read a Dockerfile from STDIN without context. Due to the lack of a context, no contents of any local directory will be sent to the Docker daemon. Since there is no context, a Dockerfile ADD only works if it refers to a remote URL.

$ docker build - < context.tar.gz

This will build an image for a compressed context read from STDIN. Supported formats are: bzip2, gzip and xz.

$ docker build github.com/creack/docker-firefox

This will clone the GitHub repository and use the cloned repository as context. The Dockerfile at the root of the repository is used as Dockerfile. Note that you can specify an arbitrary Git repository by using the git:// or git@ schema.

$ docker build -f Dockerfile.debug .

This will use a file called Dockerfile.debug for the build instructions instead of Dockerfile.

$ docker build -f dockerfiles/Dockerfile.debug -t myapp_debug .
$ docker build -f dockerfiles/Dockerfile.prod  -t myapp_prod .

The above commands will build the current build context (as specified by the .) twice, once using a debug version of a Dockerfile and once using a production version.

$ cd /home/me/myapp/some/dir/really/deep
$ docker build -f /home/me/myapp/dockerfiles/debug /home/me/myapp
$ docker build -f ../../../../dockerfiles/debug /home/me/myapp

These two docker build commands do the exact same thing. They both use the contents of the debug file instead of looking for a Dockerfile and will use /home/me/myapp as the root of the build context. Note that debug is in the directory structure of the build context, regardless of how you refer to it on the command line.

Note: docker build will return a no such file or directory error if the file or directory does not exist in the uploaded context. This may happen if there is no context, or if you specify a file that is elsewhere on the Host system. The context is limited to the current directory (and its children) for security reasons, and to ensure repeatable builds on remote Docker hosts. This is also the reason why ADD ../file will not work.

When docker build is run with the --cgroup-parent option the containers used in the build will be run with the corresponding docker run flag.

Using the --ulimit option with docker build will cause each build step's container to be started using those --ulimit flag values.