Best Practices for Writing Dockerfiles

Why Dockerfile Best Practices Matter Poorly written Dockerfiles lead to large, insecure, and hard-to-maintain container images. Following best practices ensures faster builds, smaller images, better security, and improved maintainability. 1. Use Official or Minimal Base Images Choose minimal or well-maintained base images like: FROM alpine:3.19 # or FROM python:3.11-slim 2. Pin Versions Explicitly Avoid surprises by pinning versions of dependencies and packages: RUN apt-get install -y curl=7.68.0-1ubuntu2.6 3. Combine RUN Commands Reduce layers by chaining commands: ...

June 16, 2025 · 2 min · 224 words · John Cena

LXC vs Docker: What's the Difference and When to Use Each?

Introduction Containers revolutionized the way we package and deploy applications. Two major containerization technologies are LXC (Linux Containers) and Docker. While they serve similar purposes, their underlying architecture and usage differ significantly. What is LXC? LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. It creates system-level containers that behave more like lightweight virtual machines. Key Characteristics System containers (can run full OS) Uses cgroups and namespaces directly Close to the kernel Pros Great for simulating full Linux environments Low overhead Flexible networking Cons More complex setup Less standardization across environments Not focused on developer UX What is Docker? Docker is a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in containers. It builds on top of container runtimes and provides tooling, APIs, and images. ...

June 16, 2025 · 2 min · 260 words · John Cena