Problem
What is .build-deps in the following command? I can't find an explanation in the Alpine docs. Is this a file that is predefined? Is see this referenced in many Dockerfiles.
RUN apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps \
gcc \
freetype-dev \
musl-dev
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir <packages_that_require_gcc...> \
RUN apk del .build-deps
Solution and Answer
If you see the documentation
-t, --virtual NAME Instead of adding all the packages to 'world', create a new
virtual package with the listed dependencies and add that
to 'world'; the actions of the command are easily reverted
by deleting the virtual package
What that means is when you install packages, those packages are not added to global packages. And this change can be easily reverted. So if I need gcc to compile a program, but once the program is compiled I no more need gcc.
I can install gcc, and other required packages in a virtual package and all of its dependencies and everything can be removed this virtual package name. Below is an example usage
RUN apk add --virtual mypacks gcc vim \
&& apk del mypacks
The next command will delete all 18 packages installed with the first command.
In docker these must be executed as a single RUN command (as shown above), otherwise it will not reduce the image size.