This project provides a simple example of using Docker containers to build and run a Java application without installing Java. The sample is referenced in the DZone article Containers are the new Build Artifact.

This sample does not use the Smartsheet API.

Compile Java Class

When building a Java application we need a Java Development Kit (JDK). We can use an existing Docker image with a JDK in it to build our class.

docker run -it -v $(pwd):/build openjdk:8u131-jdk-alpine javac /build/HelloWorld.java

Build Docker Container Image

We can then take our Java class file (aka our build artifact) and bundle it into a container image.

docker build -t hello-world:8u131 -f Dockerfile-8u131 .

Run Container

Once we have a compiled Java class we can simply execute it with a Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

docker run -it --rm=true hello-world:8u131

Build and Run Container with Java 9

Let's assume we also want to run our Java class in a Java 9 environment to test it. We can easily take the same artifact (our HelloWorld.class file) that was compiled with Java 8u131 and run it in a Java 9 container. We use a different Dockerfile which specifies the Java 9 JVM as the base image. Then we build it and tag it so we have both the Java 8 and Java 9 images to run either.

docker build -t hello-world:9b170 -f Dockerfile-9b170 .
docker run -it --rm=true hello-world:9b170