Docker Install software inside a container

In the first post of this series we left with a running Ubuntu 15.04 container.

Now it's time to install software inside the container.

A container is "stateless", meaning any file change inside a container is lost when the container is closed, including software installations.

Install software

To install software inside a container any method supported for the Linux distribution is fine.

I usually install Python 2.7, iftop, htop, tmux so let's run a container:

docker run -i -t ubuntu:15.04 /bin/bash

And install the software via apt-get:

apt-get install python2.7 iftop htop tmux

Commit changes

To permanently apply the changes a commit operation is needed.

List running containers:

docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
1d622f185fe4        ubuntu:15.04        "/bin/bash"         27 minutes ago      Up 27 minutes     

Then create a new image form the running container plus the changes:

docker commit 1d622f185fe4 ubuntuplus

The new image ubuntuplus is listed now in the available images:

root@ubuntusrv:~# docker images 
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED              VIRTUAL SIZE
ubuntuplus          latest              2239649107a5        5 seconds ago        184.5 MB

Verify everything went fine starting a container from the new image and running the new software:

docker run -i -t ubuntuplus /bin/bash

root@ubuntusrv:~# docker run -i -t ubuntuplus /bin/bash
root@68e94fb88ad7:/# python2.7 
Python 2.7.9 (default, Apr  2 2015, 15:33:21) 
[GCC 4.9.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 

Good! Now we're ready to move on to the next step: Volumes. Stay tuned!