docker - Multiple FROMs - what it means

Question

I want to build a docker image for the Linkurious project on github, which requires both the Neo4j database, and Node.js to run.

my first approach was to declare a base image for my image, containing Neo4j. The reference docs do not define "base image" in any helpful manner:

Base image: An image that has no parent is a base image

from which I read that I may only have a base image if that image has no base image itself.

but what is a base image? does it mean that if I declare neo4j/neo4j in a FROM directive, that when my image is run the neo database will automatically run and be available within the container on port 7474?

reading the Docker reference (see: https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/#from) I see:

FROM can appear multiple times within a single Dockerfile in order to create multiple images. Simply make a note of the last image ID output by the commit before each new FROM command.

do I want to create multiple images? it would seem what I want is to have a single image that contains the contents of other images e.g. neo4j and node.js

I've found no directive to declare dependencies in the reference manual. are there no dependencies like in RPM where in order to run my image the calling context must first install the images it needs?

I'm confused...

Answer 1

As of May 2017, multiple FROMs can be used in a single Dockerfile.
See "Builder pattern vs. Multi-stage builds in Docker" (by Alex Ellis) and PR 31257 by T?nis Tiigi.

The general syntax involves adding FROM additional times within your Dockerfile - whichever is the last FROM statement is the final base image. To copy artifacts and outputs from intermediate images use COPY --from=<base_image_number>.

FROM golang:1.7.3 as builder
WORKDIR /go/src/github.com/alexellis/href-counter/
RUN go get -d -v golang.org/x/net/html  
COPY app.go    .
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -a -installsuffix cgo -o app .

FROM alpine:latest  
RUN apk --no-cache add ca-certificates
WORKDIR /root/
COPY --from=builder /go/src/github.com/alexellis/href-counter/app    .
CMD ["./app"]  

The result would be two images, one for building, one with just the resulting app (much, much smaller)

REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE

multi               latest              bcbbf69a9b59        6 minutes ago       10.3MB  
golang              1.7.3               ef15416724f6        4 months ago        672MB  

---

what is a base image?

A set of files, plus EXPOSE'd ports, ENTRYPOINT and CMD.
You can add files and build a new image based on that base image, with a new Dockerfile starting with a FROM directive: the image mentioned after FROM is "the base image" for your new image.

does it mean that if I declare neo4j/neo4j in a FROM directive, that when my image is run the neo database will automatically run and be available within the container on port 7474?

Only if you don't overwrite CMD and ENTRYPOINT.
But the image in itself is enough: you would use a FROM neo4j/neo4j if you had to add files related to neo4j for your particular usage of neo4j.