Docker is a popular tool for containerizing applications and running them in a consistent environment across different platforms. If you have a Python script that you want to run inside a Docker container, you can use a Dockerfile to define the container image and specify the necessary dependencies. In this blog post, we’ll go over the steps to create a Dockerfile that runs a Python script and build a Docker image from it.

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Step 1: Create a Python script

First, create a Python script that you want to run inside the Docker container. For this example, let’s create a simple script called hello.py that prints "Hello, world!" to the console:

print("Hello, world!")

Save this script in a file called hello.py in a directory of your choice.

Step 2: Create a Dockerfile

Next, create a Dockerfile in the same directory as your Python script. The Dockerfile is a text file that contains the instructions for building a Docker image. Here’s an example Dockerfile that you can use:

# Use an official Python runtime as a parent image
FROM  python:3.10-slim

# Set the working directory to /app
WORKDIR  /app

# Copy the current directory contents into the container at /app
COPY  .  /app

# Run the command to install any necessary dependencies
RUN  pip  install  --no-cache-dir  -r  requirements.txt

# Run hello.py when the container launches
CMD ["python", "hello.py"]

In this Dockerfile, we’re using the official Python 3.10-slim image as the base image. We’re setting the working directory to /app, copying the contents of the current directory to /app, and running the hello.py script using the CMD instruction.

Step 3: Build the Docker image

To build the Docker image, run the following command in the same directory as your Dockerfile:

To run the Docker container, use the following command:

docker build -t myapp .

This command builds a Docker image with the name myapp. The -t option specifies a tag for the image. The . at the end of the command specifies that the build context is the current directory.

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Step 4: Run the Docker container

To run the Docker container, use the following command:

docker run --rm myapp

This command starts a container using the myapp image and runs the hello.py script inside the container. The --rm option tells Docker to automatically remove the container when it exits.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we’ve shown you how to run a Python script inside a Docker container. By creating a Dockerfile that specifies the necessary dependencies and instructions for running the script, you can easily containerize your Python applications and run them in a consistent environment. This can be especially useful if you need to run your application on different platforms or share it with others.

Thank you for reading :)