Install only docker-cli for 30% smaller kamal docker image#1541
Merged
djmb merged 1 commit intobasecamp:mainfrom Jun 12, 2025
Merged
Install only docker-cli for 30% smaller kamal docker image#1541djmb merged 1 commit intobasecamp:mainfrom
djmb merged 1 commit intobasecamp:mainfrom
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As only the docker client is executed in the image and not the docker daemon, only the docker-cli package is needed
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I tested the changes already locally and the resulting image still works the same. Could a maintainer approve the workflow to see if the CI still passes too? |
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Thanks @polarctos! |
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As only the docker client is executed in the image and not the docker server/daemon, only the
docker-clipackage is needed to be installed.The docs already include the mount of the docker daemon socket from the host:
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sockhttps://kamal-deploy.org/docs/installation/dockerized/
This reduced the image size from 733 MB to 511 MB for a local build for me, thus ca. 30% less.
Which makes the initial pull faster both on developer machines and in CI pipelines.
The image size could probably be reduced even further with Docker multi-stage builds.
Have you thought about packaging a fully native executable of releases? e.g. with Tebako or TruffleRuby
I think for non-Ruby developers this could reduce the barrier of using Kamal, as the suggested docker approach surely also works, but might look a bit cumbersome. Such a native binary could then probably also more easily be packaged for package managers like
brew.