Working example.

This is not a spring boot tutorial. It’s the updated answer to a question on how to run a Maven build within a Docker container.

Question originally posted 4 years ago.

1. Generate an application

Use the spring initializer to generate a demo app

https://start.spring.io/

Extract the zip archive locally

2. Create a Dockerfile

#
# Build stage
#
FROM maven:3.6.0-jdk-11-slim AS build
COPY src /home/app/src
COPY pom.xml /home/app
RUN mvn -f /home/app/pom.xml clean package

#
# Package stage
#
FROM openjdk:11-jre-slim
COPY --from=build /home/app/target/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar /usr/local/lib/demo.jar
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["java","-jar","/usr/local/lib/demo.jar"]

Note

• This example uses a multi-stage build. The first stage is used to build the code. The second stage only contains the built jar and a JRE to run it (note how jar is copied between stages).

3. Build the image

docker build -t demo .

4. Run the image

$ docker run --rm -it demo:latest

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::        (v2.1.3.RELEASE)

2019-02-22 17:18:57.835  INFO 1 --- [           main] com.example.demo.DemoApplication         : Starting DemoApplication v0.0.1-SNAPSHOT on f4e67677c9a9 with PID 1 (/usr/local/bin/demo.jar started by root in /)
2019-02-22 17:18:57.837  INFO 1 --- [           main] com.example.demo.DemoApplication         : No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
2019-02-22 17:18:58.294  INFO 1 --- [           main] com.example.demo.DemoApplication         : Started DemoApplication in 0.711 seconds (JVM running for 1.035)

Misc

Read the Docker hub documentation on how the Maven build can be optimized to use a local repository to cache jars.

• https://hub.docker.com/_/maven
  

  ---

Update (2019-02-07)

This question is now 4 years old and in that time it’s fair to say building application using Docker has undergone significant change.

Option 1: Multi-stage build

This new style enables you to create more light-weight images that don’t encapsulate your build tools and source code.

The example here again uses the official maven base image to run first stage of the build using a desired version of Maven. The second part of the file defines how the built jar is assembled into the final output image.

FROM maven:3.5-jdk-8 AS build  
COPY src /usr/src/app/src  
COPY pom.xml /usr/src/app  
RUN mvn -f /usr/src/app/pom.xml clean package

FROM gcr.io/distroless/java  
COPY --from=build /usr/src/app/target/helloworld-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.jar /usr/app/helloworld-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.jar  
EXPOSE 8080  
ENTRYPOINT ["java","-jar","/usr/app/helloworld-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.jar"]  

Note:

• I’m using Google’s distroless base image, which strives to provide just enough run-time for a java app.

Option 2: Jib

I haven’t used this approach but seems worthy of investigation as it enables you to build images without having to create nasty things like Dockerfiles 🙂

https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/jib

The project has a Maven plugin which integrates the packaging of your code directly into your Maven workflow.

---

Original answer (Included for completeness, but written ages ago)

Try using the new official images, there’s one for Maven

https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/maven/

The image can be used to run Maven at build time to create a compiled application or, as in the following examples, to run a Maven build within a container.

Example 1 – Maven running within a container

The following command runs your Maven build inside a container:

docker run -it --rm \
       -v "$(pwd)":/opt/maven \
       -w /opt/maven \
       maven:3.2-jdk-7 \
       mvn clean install

Notes:

• The neat thing about this approach is that all software is installed and running within the container. Only need docker on the host machine.
• See Dockerfile for this version

Example 2 – Use Nexus to cache files

Run the Nexus container

docker run -d -p 8081:8081 --name nexus sonatype/nexus

Create a “settings.xml” file:

<settings>
  <mirrors>
    <mirror>
      <id>nexus</id>
      <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf>
      <url>http://nexus:8081/content/groups/public/</url>
    </mirror>
  </mirrors>
</settings>

Now run Maven linking to the nexus container, so that dependencies will be cached

docker run -it --rm \
       -v "$(pwd)":/opt/maven \
       -w /opt/maven \
       --link nexus:nexus \
       maven:3.2-jdk-7 \
       mvn -s settings.xml clean install

Notes:

• An advantage of running Nexus in the background is that other 3rd party repositories can be managed via the admin URL transparently to the Maven builds running in local containers.