Intro to Docker and how we use it at WriteLaTeX

Yay, the first Docker post I can understand. I just installed and used Docker today to get a simple web server running out of a VPS (which is also a first for me as I always used managed services like Heroku).<p>However, some aspects of Docker leave me with concerns that it may not be the tool for me. I tried installing the official node image and it downloaded hundreds of megabytes of other images (probably over a GB). Not that much of a problem on my VPS but absolutely unusable anywhere else in my corner of the world.<p>Looks like I&#x27;ll have to create my own images and use my own private local registry to make use of Docker outside of my VPS.

Great presentation, it was very easy to follow and understand.<p>Quick question though: is the only reason for using Docker containers with LaTeX file compilation for providing isolation between documents? Isn&#x27;t there a performance hit versus running file compilation directly on worker machines, perhaps with some sort of folder-based isolation (workers will only compile files in folders that the user has permissions to)?

&gt; Each compile job gets its own short-lived container<p>Just curious, how do handle input and output? Do you prepare a volume with the input and then grab output from there as well, or the program inside the container is fetching input from somewhere first, runs exec latex and then uploads the output elsewhere?

Love the format of your presentation. I wish all web based presentations were like that.

Docker as a layer of security vs. untrusted user input being compiled as root?<p>I&#x27;d be interested in hearing more about the decision-making since Docker doesn&#x27;t claim to provide protection from untrusted users.

I disagree with running RVM in a docker container. The point of RVM is to manage multiple versions of ruby and a container is only meant to have a single responsibility so running multiple versions of ruby is not advised.<p>I think you&#x27;re better off installing the required version with Ruby Install [1] rather than adding the complexity of a version manager.<p>[1] - <a href="https://github.com/postmodern/ruby-install#readme" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;postmodern&#x2F;ruby-install#readme</a>

Really nice presentation. Thanks for sharing this!

q: what did you use to generate the slides?<p>edit: I see: cleaver

Would it be possible for you to add support to other TeX formats, in particular, ConTeXt?