>"They don't even do what they're advertised to do, ie give you a reliable way to reproduce a build, and they're inflexible for my idea of real-world work with Docker."Not exactly, as the thread you link points out you can reference an image ID in FROM rather than the name:tag which has potential to change silently.
It's the equivalent of using a package manager against a repo you don't own without pinning - expect problems.
This can be mitigated by FROM'ing via ID or avoided entirely by running your registry where tags are reliable.
Admittedly, these things are not necessarily obvious, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to paint Dockerfiles as worthless or broken.
That said, ShutIt looks very cool and seems to address exactly some of my concerns / desires about working with Docker.
I just don't agree with framing it in opposition to and at the expense of what exists.
There's value in a container description that is fully self-contained, transferable and 'dumb' enough to be transparent.
Not exactly, as the thread you link points out you can reference an image ID in FROM rather than the name:tag which has potential to change silently.
It's the equivalent of using a package manager against a repo you don't own without pinning - expect problems.
This can be mitigated by FROM'ing via ID or avoided entirely by running your registry where tags are reliable.
Admittedly, these things are not necessarily obvious, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to paint Dockerfiles as worthless or broken.
That said, ShutIt looks very cool and seems to address exactly some of my concerns / desires about working with Docker.
I just don't agree with framing it in opposition to and at the expense of what exists.
There's value in a container description that is fully self-contained, transferable and 'dumb' enough to be transparent.