# Repo2docker and MyBinder: does image size make a difference?

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883>\
**Category:** Binder\
**Tags:** repo2docker\
**Created:** [April 26, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883 "2019-04-26T11:13:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fmaussion](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/fmaussion/32/390_2.png) [@fmaussion](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/fmaussion)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883/1 "2019-04-26T11:13:49Z")

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For [https://edu.oggm.org](https://edu.oggm.org) ([repo](https://github.com/OGGM/oggm-edu)), we need an environment with a lot of packages from the python-GIS stack. Our docker image was 4.3Gb large, so I spent some time moving to a pure pip install, reducing the image size from 4.3Gb to 3.3Gb.

However, the resulting image is still very large because conda is still installed per default (I suppose).

As per [https://mybinder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#what-factors-influence-how-long-it-takes-a-binder-session-to-start](https://mybinder.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html#what-factors-influence-how-long-it-takes-a-binder-session-to-start) , I understand that reducing the image size is not the biggest priority, but wouldn’t there still be a gain if we managed to get down to 1Gb?

This would only be possible by ditching conda altogether, which is something repo2docker may not be able to do anyway: I just wanted to ask here if this would be a possibility, and especially if reducing the image size is really worth the trouble in the first place.

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**Author:** ![betatim](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/betatim/32/10_2.png) [@betatim](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/betatim)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 1:05pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883/2 "2019-04-26T13:05:51Z")

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If you want to chase every last bit of performance/image size I’d recommend starting from something like: [https://github.com/binder-examples/minimal-dockerfile](https://github.com/binder-examples/minimal-dockerfile) but the “minimal” in the name really does mean “minimal”.

I just built [https://github.com/binder-examples/requirements](https://github.com/binder-examples/requirements) which is almost a “nothing but conda and other repo2docker infrastructure” image. It installs a few dependencies like matplotlib, numpy and seaborn.

The image size comes to 527MB according to microbadger. About 70MB of those are (I think) “packages” that I asked for in `requirements.txt`. Of the remaining image size I’d say 50% are the Ubuntu base image and 50% are from miniconda.

> **[MicroBadger - betatim/binder-example-requirements](https://microbadger.com/images/betatim/binder-example-requirements)**
>
> What's inside this Docker container? Inspect labels, layers and other metadata.

My take away from this is that you can save around 200-400MB by starting from a minimal `Dockerfile` and tuning exactly what gets installed and how.

It would be interesting if you could push your built image to docker hub so we can see what it looks like in microbadger.

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**Author:** ![fmaussion](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/fmaussion/32/390_2.png) [@fmaussion](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/fmaussion)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883/3 "2019-04-26T16:06:35Z")

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Thanks @betatim ! I’m not that much interested in micro-optimisations, I was mostly wondering if it’s even worth it in the first place ;-).

I’m learning about docker in the process and just pushed an image here: [https://hub.docker.com/r/fmaussion/oggm-edu-r2d-pip](https://hub.docker.com/r/fmaussion/oggm-edu-r2d-pip)

The binder files are here: [https://github.com/OGGM/oggm-edu-r2d-pip](https://github.com/OGGM/oggm-edu-r2d-pip)

My goal now is to use this base image for the set-up we discussed here: [Repo2Docker: make it easy to start from arbitrary docker image](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-make-it-easy-to-start-from-arbitrary-docker-image/502/13)

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**Author:** ![betatim](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/betatim/32/10_2.png) [@betatim](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/betatim)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 7:08am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883/4 "2019-04-27T07:08:41Z")

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Take a look at [https://microbadger.com/images/fmaussion/oggm-edu-r2d-pip](https://microbadger.com/images/fmaussion/oggm-edu-r2d-pip) vs [https://microbadger.com/images/betatim/binder-example-requirements](https://microbadger.com/images/betatim/binder-example-requirements). Each of the “layers” they display is the result of running a command in the docker file repo2docker generates. You can see the ones that are similar between the two images and also which ones are new.

For example your `postBuild` step seems to be the one that generates the biggest layer (about 400MB). Maybe there is potential for clean up in the commands you run there?

ps. I never know how to estimate docker image sizes. `docker images` locally seems to show different numbers to microbadger and then how much actually needs transferring seems to be different again. I think most of that uncertainty goes away by looking at the ratio of layer sizes between two images 🙂

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**Author:** ![fmaussion](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/fmaussion/32/390_2.png) [@fmaussion](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/fmaussion)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 9:59am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/repo2docker-and-mybinder-does-image-size-make-a-difference/883/5 "2019-04-27T09:59:37Z")

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Thanks - postBuild is where I install most of the pip packages because of the order in which they need to be installed: [https://github.com/OGGM/oggm-edu-r2d-pip/blob/e268070b2a63a98508646b878cc5f26fbdb05554/binder/postBuild](https://github.com/OGGM/oggm-edu-r2d-pip/blob/e268070b2a63a98508646b878cc5f26fbdb05554/binder/postBuild) . There are 225 Mb of sample data that we download as well.

Yeah, I have trouble to understand what an image size really is as well. Cause locally, running `docker images` gives a size of 3.31GB (versus 4.28GB for the conda build). I’m already glad we managed to save space in comparison to the pure conda build 😉