This example creates a Docker image from a Spring Boot application using Spotify's Docker Maven plugin.

The project consist of two modules:

1. docker-example-model - contains all the models used in the example
2. docker-spring-service - contains Spring Boot example service and related classes

Make sure you have Maven installed. Execute the following maven command from the directory of the parent project, docker-example:

mvn clean install

It will create the Spring Boot executable JAR,docker-example-service-1.0.jar, under docker-example-service/target folder.

To run the newly created Spring Boot JAR from the terminal:

java -jar docker-example-service-1.0.jar

This should start up the example application at port 8080. The application can be accessed at http://localhost:8080

Before you build the Docker image, make sure Docker is available in your environment. Execute the following maven command from the directory of the parent project, docker-example:

mvn clean package docker:build

This should build a Docker image named docker-example.

Run the newly created Docker image, docker-example, by executing the docker run command from the terminal:

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080  --name=cheetos docker-example

• --rm option automatically clean up the container and remove the file system when the container exit.
• --name option names the Docker container as cheetos. In absence of the --name option, the Docker generates a random name for your container.
• -p 8080:8080 option publishes all exposed ports to the host interfaces. In our example, it is port 8080 is both hostPort and containerPort

This should start up the example application and it can be accessed at http://localhost:8080

Run the docker ps to list all the containers. To see all running containers, execute the following command:

bash-3.2$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                    NAMES
d03854fb7779        docker-example      "java -Djava.security"   7 seconds ago       Up 6 seconds        0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp   cheetos
bash-3.2$ 

To see all running containers including the non-running ones, execute the following command:

bash-3.2$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS                         PORTS                    NAMES
d03854fb7779        docker-example      "java -Djava.security"   About a minute ago   Up About a minute              0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp   cheetos
28b2cff9e7e6        docker-example      "java -Djava.security"   About an hour ago    Exited (0) About an hour ago                            indra1
d2720676c932        nginx               "nginx -g 'daemon off"   4 months ago         Exited (0) 4 months ago                                 webserver

To remove a Docker container, execute docker rm command. This will remove a non-running container.

bash-3.2$ docker rm indra1
indra1 

To forcefully remove a running container

bash-3.2$ docker rm -f cheetos
cheetos

To stop a container, execute docker stop

command:
bash-3.2$ docker stop cheetos
cheetos

We are using Spotify's Docker Maven Plugin. It's relatively easy to setup in your Maven pom.xml. Complexity rises when you specify the plugin in the parent POM. Here are the changes to the parent pom.xml

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>com.spotify</groupId>
                <artifactId>docker-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>0.4.13</version>
                <configuration>
                    <skipDockerBuild>true</skipDockerBuild>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

The skipDockerBuild tag is set to true in order to skip the docker build in the parent pom.

Changes to the child pom.xml where Spring Boot JAR gets created:

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>com.spotify</groupId>
                <artifactId>docker-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <skipDockerBuild>false</skipDockerBuild>
                    <imageName>${docker.image.name}</imageName>
                    <dockerDirectory>${basedir}/src/main/docker</dockerDirectory>
                    <resources>
                        <resource>
                            <targetPath>/</targetPath>
                            <directory>${project.build.directory}</directory>
                            <include>${project.build.finalName}.jar</include>
                        </resource>
                    </resources>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

Here is the skipDockerBuild tag is set to false to override the parent flag.

• imageName specifies the name of our example Docker image, e.g, docker-example
• dockerDirectory specifies the location of the Dockerfile. The contents of the dockerDirectory will be copied into ${project.build.directory}/docker. A Dockerfile specfies all the instructions to be read by Docker while building the image.
• include specfies the resources to be included, which ion our case is docker-example-service-1.0.jar

Here is the content of the example Dockerfile.

FROM frolvlad/alpine-oraclejdk8:slim
VOLUME /tmp
ADD docker-example-service-1.0.jar app.jar
RUN sh -c 'touch /app.jar'
EXPOSE 8080
ENV JAVA_OPTS=""
ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom", "-Dapp.port=${app.port}", "-jar","/app.jar"]
LABEL maintainer "Indra Basak"

• FROM instruction sets the Base Image for subsequent instructions. FROM must be the first non-comment instruction in the Dockerfile.
• VOLUME instruction creates a mount point with the specified name.
• ADD instruction copies from <src> and adds them to the filesystem of the image at the path <dest>.
• RUN instruction executes the command on top of the current image.
• EXPOSE instruction informs Docker that the container listens on the specified network ports at runtime.
• ENV instruction sets the environment variable
• ENTRYPOINT allows you to configure a container that will run as an executable.
• LABEL instruction adds metadata to an image.

You can find out more about Docker instructions here