


There are a number of common criteria for choosing a base image, though your particular situation might emphasize, add, or remove some of these: Need to ship quickly, and don’t have time to figure out every detail on your own? Read the concise, action-oriented Python on Docker Production Handbook.

Note: Outside any specific best practice being demonstrated, the Dockerfiles in this article are not examples of best practices, since the added complexity would obscure the main point of the article. Docker has a series of “official” Docker base images based on various Linux distributions, and also base images that package specific programming languages, in particular Python.
