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I wonder the same thing. I can see the value in shrinking a 1GB container by 90%, but I suspect there are diminishing returns by the time you're shrinking a 5MB

I wonder the same thing. I can see the value in shrinking a 1GB container by 90%, but I suspect there are diminishing returns by the time you're shrinking a 5MB container below 1MB. In most organisations, there are probably bigger opportunities for improving security, performance, etc.

viraptor 6y ago
It's worth remembering the MBs add up in multiple places. Sure, it may not be worth for 5MB. But once you're in tens/hundreds, they add up in storage (how many old versions do you keep), transfer times (how quickly can a fresh instance pull all tasks and how quickly can a developer (at home rather than in us-east-1) start with a project), transfer costs (how many times does a CI node need to download/upload the last layer). Saving 10% in size may actually translate to a non-trivial cost saving - both obvious and cost-as-in-paid-waiting-time.
- lanstin 6y ago
  Also all those dependencies are security risks. A lot quicker and easier to scan a container with just one go executable than even the most benign distribution of core utils and so on. And if your containers are just one binary and you can read the logs then you don’t need to go into the container any more than you need to go into your binary. Then your k8s node or other container runner host is just like your old host running a bunch of processes but with much better process isolation and file system isolation.
  - blowski 6y ago
    There are some teams where this will be the best use of their time, and I'd be well out of my depth suggesting to them otherwise. But the vast majority of teams in my experience have spent ages farting around with these kind of micro-optmisations, whilst there were far better opportunities to improve the infrastructure. And in the process, they actually made it more fragile and harder to debug. Simply put, this is a niche skill with niche value. Most people trying to do this probably can't and shouldn't do it.

viraptor 6y ago

It's worth remembering the MBs add up in multiple places. Sure, it may not be worth for 5MB. But once you're in tens/hundreds, they add up in storage (how many old versions do you keep), transfer times (how quickly can a fresh instance pull all tasks and how quickly can a developer (at home rather than in us-east-1) start with a project), transfer costs (how many times does a CI node need to download/upload the last layer). Saving 10% in size may actually translate to a non-trivial cost saving - both obvious and cost-as-in-paid-waiting-time.

lanstin 6y ago
Also all those dependencies are security risks. A lot quicker and easier to scan a container with just one go executable than even the most benign distribution of core utils and so on. And if your containers are just one binary and you can read the logs then you don’t need to go into the container any more than you need to go into your binary. Then your k8s node or other container runner host is just like your old host running a bunch of processes but with much better process isolation and file system isolation.
- blowski 6y ago
  There are some teams where this will be the best use of their time, and I'd be well out of my depth suggesting to them otherwise. But the vast majority of teams in my experience have spent ages farting around with these kind of micro-optmisations, whilst there were far better opportunities to improve the infrastructure. And in the process, they actually made it more fragile and harder to debug. Simply put, this is a niche skill with niche value. Most people trying to do this probably can't and shouldn't do it.