Building Docker Images Without Docker

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Building a Docker image is actually all about building a root filesystem that a process will use. So there should be a relatively simple way to build a Docker image without having to rely on the Docker daemon !!! Shouldn’t there be ?

There are approaches like source to image but recently I have looked at Bazel and its Docker rules.

Bazel, Basel or Basil

Bazel is a build system open sourced in 2015 by Google. It is the open sourced version of their internal Blaze system. With just a letter permutation in the name. I have no clue how to pronounce it properly, maybe it is Basel like for the Swiss town or maybe it is Basil like the culinary plant.

Bazel is used in Kubernetes and TensorFlow and we are seeing it pop-up in more and more projects. So no more ./configure, make, make install people, get with the Bazel it is 2017. Plus you want the speed, the cross language support, the reproducibility and the scale.

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