Skip to main content
Version: 1.20

Development images

Development images allow you to configure the runtime of your Development Containers. Instead of having to keep a wiki with a never-ending list of tools, dependencies, and scripts to install and run, you can pack all of it in the development images of your Development Containers.

Overview​

At a high level, a development image is a Docker container image that contains:

  • One or more language runtimes (e.g python, ruby, node)
  • SDKs for your language runtime (e.g JDK, python-dev)
  • Binary dependencies (e.g. openssl, git)
  • Tools to manage and install dependencies (e.g. pip, bundler, yarn)
  • Tools to run your tests and analyze your code (e.g nosetest, pylint)
  • Your source code

Out of the box, Okteto maintains pre-configured development images in this GitHub repository for the following languages:

  • dotnetcore
  • golang
  • java
  • node
  • php
  • python
  • ruby
  • rust

Create your own​

The default development images are a great way to start. They use the latest official docker images for your language runtime and include the most common developer tools and a custom bash prompt. But they might not have everything you need. Your team might need to support a very specific version of your runtime, or you might need some extra tooling available.

Do the following to create your own development image:

  1. Create a Dockerfile
  2. Pick a base image
  3. Add your extra dependencies, tools, and files
  4. Build your image in the build section of the Okteto manifest
  5. Update the image key in your okteto.yaml with your new image using the OKTETO_BUILD_XXX variables

Besides following Docker's best practices, we also recommend the following:

  • Pin all your dependencies, so there aren't any surprises
  • Keep the Dockerfile in your repository, next to your code
  • When using multi-stage builds, use your builder stage to build your development image