What is Docker Init & When to Use It – Best Practices

Docker Init is a utility that automates the process of enabling a project to be built and run with Docker, saving time and increasing consistency when Dockerizing a new application. It provides a set of Dockerfile templates for ASP.NET, Go, Node, Python, and Rust server applications, allowing users to immediately build their image and start a container. The command creates three files: Dockerfile, compose.yaml, and .dockerignore. Docker Init is helpful in several real-world development scenarios, such as quickly bootstrapping new projects, adding Docker to existing projects with sensible defaults, learning how to use Docker with additional programming languages, and saving time by automating more project management tasks.