Docker 101

Docker packages your application and everything it needs to run - code, runtime, libraries, config - into a single portable unit called a container. Run that container anywhere Docker is installed and it behaves identically: the same on your laptop as in production, regardless of what else is installed on the host machine.

This solves the classic “works on my machine” problem. Your colleague running a different version of Python, your CI server running a different Linux distro, the production server with its own installed packages - none of that matters once your application is containerised.

What you will need: Docker Desktop installed on your machine. It is free to download for Mac, Windows, and Linux. After installation, verify it is working by opening a terminal and running docker version.

What this workshop covers:

• Part 1 - Concepts & building: containers vs VMs, images, layers, Dockerfile, .dockerignore, multi-stage builds
• Part 2 - Running & storage: docker run flags, container lifecycle, bind mounts, named volumes, the node_modules gotcha
• Part 3 - Debugging & registry: docker logs, docker exec, crashed containers, image naming, push/pull
• Part 4 - Scratch containers: FROM scratch, static linking, CA certificates, minimal images

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