Docker Multiple Dockerfiles in project

Question

How do you organize the Dockerfiles belonging to a project when you have one Dockerfile for the database  one for the application server  and so on  Do you create some sort of hierachy in the source  A big enterprise project can t consist of only one Dockerfile

User · Answer

Add an abstraction layer  for example  a YAML file like in this project https   github com larytet dockerfile-generator which looks like   centos7      base  centos centos7     packager  rpm     install        -  build essential centos        - rpm-build     run        -  get release     env        -  environment vars   A short Python script make can generate all Dockerfiles from the configuration file

User · Answer

In Intellij  I simple changed the name of the docker files to   Dockerfile  and associated the file type   Dockerfile to docker syntax

User · Answer

Use docker-compose and multiple Dockerfile in separate directories     Don t rename your Dockerfile to Dockerfile db or Dockerfile web  it may not be supported by your IDE and you will lose syntax highlighting    As Kingsley Uchnor said  you can have multiple Dockerfile  one per directory  which represent something you want to build   I like to have a docker folder which holds each applications and their configuration  Here s an example project folder hierarchy for a web application that has a database   docker-compose yml docker  -- web         -- Dockerfile  -- db        -- Dockerfile   docker-compose yml example   version   3  services    web        will build   docker web Dockerfile     build    docker web     ports       -  5000 5000      volumes       -    code   db        will build   docker db Dockerfile     build    docker db     ports        -  3306 3306    redis        will use docker hub s redis prebuilt image from here        https   hub docker com   redis      image   redis alpine    docker-compose command line usage example     The following command will create and start all containers in the background   using docker-compose yml from current directory docker-compose up -d    get help docker-compose --help   In case you need files from previous folders when building your Dockerfile  You can still use the above solution and place your Dockerfile in a directory such as docker web Dockerfile  all you need is to set the build context in your docker-compose yml like this   version   3  services    web      build        context          dockerfile    docker web Dockerfile     ports       -  5000 5000      volumes       -    code   This way  you ll be able to have things like this   config-on-root ini docker-compose yml docker  -- web        -- Dockerfile        -- some-other-config ini   and a   docker web Dockerfile like this   FROM alpine latest  COPY config-on-root ini   COPY docker web some-other-config ini     Here are some quick commands from tldr docker-compose  Make sure you refer to official documentation for more details

User · Answer

In newer versions   1 8 0  of docker  you can do this  docker build -f Dockerfile db   docker build -f Dockerfile web     A big save   EDIT  update versions per raksja s comment  EDIT  comment from  vsevolod  it s possible to get syntax highlighting in VS code by giving files  Dockerfile extension instead of name  e g  Prod Dockerfile  Test Dockerfile etc

User · Answer

When working on a project that requires the use of multiple dockerfiles  simply create each dockerfile in a separate directory  For instance   app  db   Each of the above directories will contain their dockerfile  When an application is being built  docker will search all directories and build all dockerfiles

User · Answer

Author Note  This answer is out of date  Fig not longer exists and has been replaced by Docker compose  Accepted answers cannot be deleted       Docker Compose supports the building of project hierachy  So it s now easy to support a Dockerfile in each sub directory    -- docker-compose yml  -- project1         -- Dockerfile  -- project2      -- Dockerfile     Original answer  I just create a directory containing a Dockerfile for each component  Example    Setting up a docker   fig Mesos environment   When building the containers just give the directory name and Docker will select the correct Dockerfile

[docker] Docker: Multiple Dockerfiles in project

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