Blog
Thoughts on engineering, design, and building great products.
Writing a Dockerfile and Build Cache
Build your own application image: the core Dockerfile instructions, each instruction creating a layer, and how the build cache works — why putting dependency installation before copying code makes builds much faster.
Volumes and Bind Mounts: Storing Data Persistently
Data in a container vanishes when the container is removed. This article fixes that: named volumes managed by Docker and bind mounts that attach a host directory directly, when to use which, with examples proving the data survives.
Networking in Docker: Bridge, veth and Port Mapping
How containers reach each other and the outside world: the network drivers, the default bridge and the veth mechanism, port publishing, and why a user-defined network lets containers call each other by name while the default bridge does not.
Docker Compose: Running Multi-Container Applications
Declare a whole multi-component app (web, database, cache) in one file, then run it with a single command. Understand the compose file, the auto-created network that lets services call each other by name, and the up/down lifecycle.
Optimizing Images: Multi-Stage Builds and Security
Large images slow down deploys and widen the attack surface. This article shrinks images with multi-stage builds (real example: 301MB down to 15.4MB), picks lean base images, runs non-root, and avoids baking in secrets.
Docker Swarm: Cluster Architecture and Raft
Stepping into multi-machine orchestration: Swarm gathers many Docker hosts into a cluster of managers and workers. Understand the desired-state model, the Raft consensus mechanism, and why you want an odd number of managers. Includes cluster init and how to simulate multiple nodes for learning.
Swarm: Service, Scale and Rolling Update
On a Swarm cluster you don't run individual containers, you declare a service. This article creates a multi-replica service, scales it up and down, updates the version without downtime (rolling update), and watches Swarm self-heal.