How the Docker image is built

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The final Docker image, which we’ll call the runner image from now on, is built in four phases:

  1. First, the root image is built from the official debian:jessie image. In this phase all of the image’s runtime dependencies are installed.
  2. Then the compiler image is built from the root image. In this image all of the build dependencies are installed, and a compiler script is added.
  3. The third step is to run the compiler image and build Python wheels for the application and its dependencies. Those wheels are stored in a Docker data volume.
  4. Finally, the wheels stored in the data volume are exposed using a web server (using a docker container) and the final runner image is built from the root image, using the wheels.

There is one root image and one compiler image by config (see .grocker.yml config file). The wheel data volume is reused between builds with the same config.

Grocker ends up building three Docker images, two of which are reused between each build using the same config:

  1. The root image, which contains all (system) runtime dependencies
  2. The compiler image, which is the root image extended with (system) build dependencies including a C compiler and a compiler script allowing to build all needed wheels from a package name.

The last image is the runner, the final product of the Grocker build chain, which contains the application and all its dependencies (excluding external services).