Introduction/Overview

The focus of these assignments is on understanding why containers are important and how to start using them. The assignments are spread out over 2 weeks.
The primary focus is Docker. Once you are comfortable with Docker, the switch to Apptainer on the HPC should not be too difficult.
The unit consists of 9 lessons:
- Docker 1 This lesson is an overview: It focuses on motivations, and terminology --especially containers vs images.
- Docker 2 compares containers to virtual machines, explains the Docker engine, provides more discussion of the difference between Docker images and containers, and discusses Dockerhub in more detail.
- Docker 3 provides detail about Docker command-line tools for working with both Docker images and Docker containers.
- Docker 4 describes the Dockerfile: a text file that defines the Docker image and is used to build that image.
- Docker 5 is a practice that provides hands-on experience with building and running a simple Docker image.
- Docker 6 is a practice that provides hands-on experience with container isolation (that is, it reinforces the important concept that the inside of the container is completely isolated from the computer it is running on).
- Docker 7 is a lesson explaining bind mounts. Bind mounts are a solution to the container isolation problem. Bind mounts are critical to running BIDS containers because they allow the container access to directories on your computer. You cannot preprocess data without bind mounts.
- Docker 8 is a practice that provides hands-on experience with bind mounts.
- Docker 9, the final Docker lesson, discusses practical Docker setup /configuration issues for different operating systems. It focuses on setting up the Docker Desktop / Dashboard, which is available for both Windows and Mac.

Docker 1: Introduction (~30-minutes)