Containerization

For Cloud Compute, each plugin is developed in its own container. A container is a tidy package that provides everything necessary to run a program, the executable code, the operating system, and any necessary dependencies. Containers are built from images, an image is a simple file that provides explicit instructions on how to create a container.

Scratch is the "empty" image. Some executables can run in an empty container, so the smallest image can look something like the image below.

from scratch
##COPY ##any go or c++ executable
CMD[##tell it to run]

The COPY command will copy the executable from a location relative (or absolute if an absolute path is given) from the image when the image is built into a container.

The CMD command defines the command that will be executed when the container is run.

To convert the image into a container, the image needs to be built. The docker daemon can build containers or there are alternative build tools. For docker, the following line will build a valid container

docker build .

Once a container is built, you can run the container

docker run it .

Docker