Docker Cheatsheet

Dockerfile

Use this Docker reference while you build software engineering projects, review code for technical interview prep, or polish examples for a software engineer resume.

Instruction Reference

Instruction	Purpose	Example
`FROM`	Base image (must be first)	`FROM node:22-alpine`
`RUN`	Execute command in a new layer	`RUN npm ci --omit=dev`
`CMD`	Default command (overridable)	`CMD ["node", "server.js"]`
`ENTRYPOINT`	Fixed executable	`ENTRYPOINT ["python", "app.py"]`
`COPY`	Copy files from build context	`COPY package*.json ./`
`ADD`	Like COPY + auto-extract tarballs, URL fetch	`ADD archive.tar.gz /data/`
`WORKDIR`	Set working directory	`WORKDIR /app`
`ENV`	Set environment variable	`ENV NODE_ENV=production`
`ARG`	Build-time variable	`ARG VERSION=1.0`
`EXPOSE`	Document listening port	`EXPOSE 8080`
`VOLUME`	Declare a mount point	`VOLUME ["/data"]`
`USER`	Switch to user/UID	`USER node`
`LABEL`	Key-value metadata	`LABEL version="1.0"`
`HEALTHCHECK`	Container health probe	see below
`SHELL`	Override default shell	`SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-o", "pipefail", "-c"]`
`STOPSIGNAL`	Signal sent on `docker stop`	`STOPSIGNAL SIGTERM`
`ONBUILD`	Trigger in child images	`ONBUILD COPY . /app`

Minimal Node.js Example

FROM node:22-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
USER node
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Minimal Python Example

FROM python:3.13-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
COPY . .
EXPOSE 8000
USER nobody
CMD ["python", "-m", "uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

CMD vs ENTRYPOINT

# CMD alone — all arguments overridable at runtime
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

# ENTRYPOINT alone — fixed binary, no default args
ENTRYPOINT ["python", "app.py"]

# Together (recommended) — ENTRYPOINT is the executable, CMD are default args
ENTRYPOINT ["nginx", "-g"]
CMD ["daemon off;"]
# docker run img               -> nginx -g "daemon off;"
# docker run img daemon on;    -> nginx -g "daemon on;"

Always use exec form (["cmd", "arg"]) for CMD/ENTRYPOINT so signals are delivered directly to the process, not a shell.

ARG and ENV

ARG NODE_VERSION=22          # build-time only; not available at runtime
ENV PORT=3000                # available at runtime too
ENV APP_HOME=/app \
    LOG_LEVEL=info

# Use ARG to parameterise the base image
ARG BASE=node:22-alpine
FROM ${BASE}

docker build --build-arg NODE_VERSION=20 .

HEALTHCHECK

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=10s --retries=3 \
  CMD wget -qO- http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1

.dockerignore

node_modules
.git
.env*
dist
*.log
**/*.test.*

.dockerignore patterns follow .gitignore syntax. Always exclude node_modules, .git, and secrets before the first COPY . ..

Layer Caching Best Practices

# Copy dependency manifests FIRST so installs are cached
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci

# Source changes only invalidate layers from here down
COPY . .

SHELL for Pipefail Safety

SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-o", "pipefail", "-c"]
RUN curl -fsSL https://example.com | bash   # fails if curl fails

Labels (OCI standard)

LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/org/repo" \
      org.opencontainers.image.version="1.2.3" \
      org.opencontainers.image.licenses="MIT"