The Complete Practical Guide to Containers, Compose, and Production

Read before you buy: the PDF here is a free sample — the first 20 pages of the 442-page book (payments, sales and reviews on this demo site are sample data). Get the full e-book at thenexbooks on Gumroad.

"It works on my machine" should never be the end of a conversation again.

This book starts from zero — no prior Docker knowledge needed — and goes all the way to a live deployment. You will learn what containers really are, write clean and secure Dockerfiles, run multi-container apps with Docker Compose, ship images through a CI/CD pipeline, and deploy to a real server and to managed container platforms.

Every chapter builds on one realistic application, Riverbend Recipes — a web front end, REST API, background worker, PostgreSQL, Redis, and a reverse proxy with TLS — so by the end you will have taken a complete system from your laptop to production.

WHAT'S INSIDE
➔ 442 pages · 28 chapters in 6 parts + 4 appendices
➔ The container mental model: images, layers, registries, namespaces, and cgroups — explained simply
➔ Dockerfiles from first principles to production: caching, .dockerignore, multi-stage builds, small images
➔ Real apps in Python, Node.js, Java, and Go
➔ Volumes, backups, networking, configuration, secrets, logging, health checks, and restart policies
➔ Docker Compose for development and multiple environments, hot reload, and testing with real databases
➔ Image security, SBOMs, registries and tagging, BuildKit, multi-platform builds, and GitHub Actions CI/CD
➔ Production: resource limits, monitoring, troubleshooting, reverse proxies, TLS, zero-downtime deploys
➔ Deploy to a VPS with Compose and to managed container platforms — plus a clear path to Kubernetes
➔ CLI cheat sheet, Dockerfile and Compose templates, and a production checklist

Table Of Contents

PART I — CONTAINER FOUNDATIONS

• Ch 1 · Why Containers? The Problems Docker Solves
• Ch 2 · Installing Docker and Running Your First Containers
• Ch 3 · Images, Containers, and Registries: The Core Mental Model
• Ch 4 · Working with Containers Day to Day
• Ch 5 · How Containers Work Under the Hood: Namespaces, cgroups, and Layered Filesystems

PART II — BUILDING IMAGES

• Ch 6 · Writing Your First Dockerfile
• Ch 7 · Dockerfile Instructions in Depth
• Ch 8 · The Build Cache, .dockerignore, and Fast Builds
• Ch 9 · Multi-Stage Builds and Small, Efficient Images
• Ch 10 · Containerizing Real Applications: Python, Node.js, Java, and Go

PART III — DATA, NETWORKING, AND CONFIGURATION

• Ch 11 · Volumes, Bind Mounts, and Persistent Data
• Ch 12 · Container Networking: Bridge Networks, Ports, DNS, and Service Discovery
• Ch 13 · Configuration, Environment Variables, and Secrets
• Ch 14 · Logging, Health Checks, and Restart Policies

PART IV — MULTI-CONTAINER APPLICATIONS WITH DOCKER COMPOSE

• Ch 15 · Docker Compose Fundamentals
• Ch 16 · Building the Riverbend Recipes Stack with Compose
• Ch 17 · Development Workflows: Hot Reload, Debugging, and Compose Watch
• Ch 18 · Testing with Containers: Integration Tests, Ephemeral Databases, and Testcontainers
• Ch 19 · Compose Profiles, Overrides, and Multiple Environments

PART V — PRODUCTION READINESS AND SECURITY

• Ch 20 · Image Security: Non-Root Users, Minimal Bases, Scanning, and SBOMs
• Ch 21 · Registries, Tagging, and Versioning Strategies
• Ch 22 · BuildKit, Buildx, and Multi-Platform Images
• Ch 23 · CI/CD for Containers with GitHub Actions
• Ch 24 · Running Containers in Production: Resource Limits, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting
• Ch 25 · Reverse Proxies, TLS, and Zero-Downtime Deployments

PART VI — DEPLOYMENT

• Ch 26 · Deploying to a Single Server (VPS) with Docker Compose
• Ch 27 · Deploying to Managed Container Platforms
• Ch 28 · From Docker to Kubernetes: Next Steps and the Complete Journey

APPENDICES

• App A · Docker CLI Cheat Sheet
• App B · Dockerfile and Compose Templates
• App C · Production Deployment Checklist
• App D · Glossary

WHO IT IS FOR
Developers who want to containerize their apps, students and career changers building job-ready skills, junior DevOps engineers and sysadmins, and anyone who has used Docker by copying commands and now wants to truly understand it.

FORMAT
PDF (A4), 442 pages, English, clickable table of contents and PDF bookmarks. 1st Edition, 2026. Published by thenexbooks. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Docker, Inc.

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