Containerized Environments

Containerized Environments#

System-Level Reproducibility

User Space Isolation

Segregates applications, libraries, and binaries from the host.

Shared Kernel

Runs directly on the host OS kernel — near-native execution speed.

Kernel Dependency

Host kernel must provide all required modules and features.

A container manifest versions the entire user space alongside the application:

  • Base operating system (e.g., Ubuntu, Alpine Linux)

  • Core system libraries and compiler toolchains

  • All other software tools the application requires

Fully isolated from the host’s global state, configuration, and binaries.

Declarative Manifests and Runtime Execution#

Containers are instantiated from images, built from declarative manifests.

Execution binding via ENTRYPOINT:

ENTRYPOINT ["python", "/opt/pipeline/main.py"]

Execution binding via %runscript:

%runscript
    exec python /opt/pipeline/main.py "$@"

Key Insight

Manifests turn containers into self-contained executables — arguments pass directly to the internal logic.

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