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DevOps docker recommended

Docker Multi-Stage Builds

Docker multi-stage build patterns for optimized images covering build separation, layer caching, security hardening, and language-specific examples.

Difficulty
intermediate
Read time
1 min read
Version
v1.0.0
Confidence
established
Last updated

Quick Reference

Multi-stage Docker: Separate build and runtime stages. COPY --from=builder for artifacts only. Use distroless/alpine for runtime. Non-root user. BuildKit cache mounts for deps. .dockerignore to exclude. Pin base image versions. Scan with Trivy. Final image has no build tools.

Use When

  • Production Docker images
  • Compiled languages (Go, Rust, Java)
  • Node.js/Python with build steps
  • Image size optimization

Skip When

  • Simple development images
  • Single-step builds

Docker Multi-Stage Builds

Docker multi-stage build patterns for optimized images covering build separation, layer caching, security hardening, and language-specific examples.

Tags

docker multi-stage optimization security devops

Discussion