6: Images
In this chapter we’ll dive deep into Docker images. The aim is to give you a solid understanding of what Docker images are, how to perform basic operations, and how they work under-the-hood.
We’ll see how to build new images for our own applications in a later chapter.
We’ll split this chapter into the usual three parts:
- The TLDR
- The deep dive
- The commands
Docker images - The TLDR
Image, Docker image, container image, and OCI image all mean the same thing. We’ll use the terms interchangeably.
A container image is read-only package that contains everything you need to run an application. It includes application code, application dependencies, a minimal set of OS constructs, and metadata. A single image can be used to start one or more containers.
If you’re familiar with VMware, you can think of images as similar to VM templates. A VM template is like a stopped VM — a container image is like a stopped container. If you...
