What Is Docker Linux?

Docker Linux

Docker Linux is an open-source categorization platform for building and deploying applications. It helps developers to package different applications in a Linux container. It provides a platform for standardized executable components that can be used to combine application source code and run that code in any environment. Its popularity is increasing enormously as many organizations are shifting to cloud-native development and hybrid cloud development.

Developers can build containers without the help of Docker. However, Docker makes it easier, simpler, better, and safer to build, manage, and deploy containers. Docker is an essential toolkit for developers as it provides the feature to build, run, update, manage, and deploy containers using some simple and lucid commands. It also gives work and time-saving APIs for automation.

Docker is sometimes also referred to as Docker Inc., which is the company that sells the commercial version of Docker and also as Docker Open Source Project. Docker Inc. and many other organizations come to contribute to Docker’s open-source projects.

Why Use Docker

In the early development phase, Linux Docker was developed in the Linux kernel, which enabled the visualization for a single instance of Linux. 

Docker has changed and enhanced the native categorization with technologies that can enable:

1. Improved and Seamless Portability

Linux Containers (LXC) often work with machine-specific configurations, but Docker containers can run without modifications on any cloud platforms, data centers, and desktops. 

2. Lighter and Faster

You can run only one process in a Docker container, which makes it much faster and lighter than others. It can build an application while one of its parts is being taken down for any update or change.

3. Automated Container Creation

Docker also provides automated containers with the help of application source code.

4. Container Reuse

Existing containers can also be used as base images for building and deploying new containers.

5. Open-Source Libraries

Developers working with Docker can access many open-source repositories that contain thousands of containers contributed by users and other organizations.

Prerequisites

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Installing Docker on Linux

Installing Docker on Linux is not a single-step process, but it is a multi-step process. Here are the steps to install Docker on Linux:

Step 1: If you are using Linux on your computer, you will have to install it directly. At first, you should be logged in as a user, and then you need to ensure that you have the cURL from the command line. You should open the terminal and type the below-given command:

If your cURL is not installed, then you should update your package manager and install it using the following command:

Step 2: Now that you have the cURL,  you can install the latest Docker package.

Step 3: You need to add your account to the Docker group. 

This step is crucial as it is responsible for running Docker commands on a non-root user. You have to log out and log in again to get the effective changes on the system.

Step 4: Verify if Docker is successfully installed. You can verify it by running the hello-world container in docker.

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Docker Linux Container

Containers in Docker Linux are made by process isolation and virtualization capabilities built using the Linux kernel. The capabilities include control groups to allocate resources among processes and a namespace for restricting process access.

These containers enable many virtual machines to share the CPU, memory, and other resources for a single hardware server. Due to this, containers provide various functionalities and features of virtual machines, including application isolation, cost-effectiveness, and a few others as listed below:

1. Lightweight

Virtual machines contain the payload of an entire operating system and the hypervisor, but it is not the same for Docker containers. They only include processes and dependencies necessary for the execution of the operating system. Container sizes are measured in megabytes (some virtual machines have sizes in gigabytes), making them faster at startup time and better at hardware stores.

2. Greater Resource Efficiency

Containers can run any application several times on the same hardware as you can on virtual machines, reducing the cloud space.

3. Improved Developer Productivity

Containers are faster, easier, and better to build, deploy, and manage applications than virtual machines, making them ideal for developers’ various use cases.

Docker Compose Linux

Docker teams have made Docker Compose Linux. It is essential in Docker as it makes it easier for the users to use Docker containers for building, deploying, updating, and shutting down the system. 

The main advantage of using Docker compose is that it can bring multiple Docker containers and execute them simultaneously. 

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