This is the repository for the official Docker image for Clojure. It is automatically pulled and built by Stackbrew into the Docker registry. This image runs on OpenJDK 8, 11, 17, and more recent releases and includes Leiningen or tools-deps (see below for tags and building instructions).
The version tags on these images look like (temurin-major-version-)lein-N.N.N(-distro),
or (temurin-major-version-)tools-deps(-distro). These refer to which version
of leiningen or tools-deps is packaged in the image (because they can then install
and use any version of Clojure at runtime). The lein (or lein-bullseye-slim,
temurin-17-lein, etc.) images will always have a recent version of leiningen
installed. If you want to use tools-deps, specify either clojure:tools-deps,
clojure:tools-deps-bullseye-slim or other similar variants.
As of 5/2024, new boot images are no longer provided. The existing boot images will remain in the registry.
As of 2020-3-20 the clojure:latest (also clojure because latest is the
default) now has leiningen and tools-deps installed.
Previously this tag only had leiningen installed. Installing tools-deps too is
helpful for quick start examples, newcomers, etc. as leiningen is by no means
the de facto standard build tool these days. The downside is that the image is
larger. But for the latest tag it's a good trade-off because for anything real
we have always recommended using more specific tags. No other tags are affected
by this change.
Java follows a release cadence of every 6 months with an LTS (long-term support) release every 2-3 years. As of 2019-9-25, our images will default to the latest LTS release of OpenJDK (currently 21). But we also now provide the ability to specify which version of Java you'd like via Docker tags:
JDK 1.8 tools-deps image: clojure:temurin-8-tools-deps
JDK 11 variant of the tools-deps image: clojure:temurin-11-tools-deps or clojure:temurin-11
JDK 17 with lein 2.11.2: clojure:temurin-17-lein-2.11.2
JDK 20 with the latest version of lein: clojure:temurin-20-lein
JDK 21 variant of the tools-deps image: clojure:tools-deps or clojure:temurin-21 or clojure:temurin-21-tools-deps
JDK 22 variant of the tools-deps image: clojure:temurin-22 or clojure:temurin-22-tools-deps
The upstream eclipse-temurin images are built on different versions of Ubuntu, so we have exposed those in our Docker tags as well. However, Ubuntu is not the best distro for Docker images in many cases. In particular, their insistence on replacing traditional dpkg packages with snaps renders them essentially unusable inside containers because they need a daemon running to even install. To mitigate this we provide Debian-based images that copy the Java bits from the eclipse-temurin images (which is what the Temurin folks recommend when you want a different base image than what they provide). It is recommended to use the Debian variants unless you have a need to use Ubuntu or stick closer to the official upstream images.
As of 2023-10-12 the default distro is Debian bookworm (12) in JDK 21+ images and Ubuntu jammy (22.04) in JDK <=20 images in order to maintain backwards compatibility. But we recommend you use Debian variants on any JDK version unless you have a good, specific reason not to. There are fewer dead ends that way.
For a lighter-weight image, try the Debian -slim variants. You can just put
bookworm-slim (for Debian 12) or bullseye-slim (for Debian 11) in the distro
slot of your Docker tag to get those.
You can specify which distro & version you'd like by appending it to the end of your Docker tag as in the following examples (but note that not every combination is provided upstream and thus likewise for us):
Java 8 leiningen on Debian bullseye-slim: clojure:temurin-8-lein-bullseye-slim
Java 11 leiningen on Debian bullseye: clojure:temurin-11-lein-bullseye
Java 17 tools-deps on Ubuntu focal: clojure:tools-deps or clojure:temurin-17 or clojure:temurin-17-tools-deps or clojure:temurin-17-tools-deps-focal
Java 17 tools-deps on Debian bullseye-slim: clojure:bullseye-slim or clojure:tools-deps-bullseye-slim or clojure:temurin-17-bullseye-slim or clojure:temurin-17-tools-deps-bullseye-slim
Java 21 tools-deps on Debian bookworm: clojure:tools-deps or clojure:temurin-21-tools-deps or clojure:temurin-21-bookworm
Java 22 leiningen on Debian bookworm: clojure:temurin-21-lein-bookworm
Sometimes there are upstream eclipse-temurin images based on Alpine Linux.
As of 2022-9-29 these are available for the linux/amd64 architecture only.
Some example tags:
Java 17 leiningen on Alpine: clojure:temurin-17-alpine clojure:temurin-17-lein-alpine
Java 21 tools-deps on Alpine: clojure:temurin-21-tools-deps-alpine or clojure:temurin-21-alpine
Run an interactive shell from this image.
docker run -ti clojure bash
Then within the shell, create a new Leiningen project and start a Clojure REPL.
lein new hello-world
cd hello-world
lein repl
The Dockerfiles are generated by the docker-clojure Clojure app in this repo.
You'll need a recent version of Babashka installed to run the builds.
Take a look at the :tasks key in the bb.edn file in the root of this repo.
Each of these can be invoked via bb run [task] at the command line.
For example, to build all images locally, run bb run build-images.
Note that you'll need to enable the new buildx feature and set as the default
builder in the Docker daemon you're using to build the images. The build script
uses some flags that require it.
You'll also need to create a builder container with docker buildx create --use
in order to build images for all supported platforms (currently linux/amd64 and
linux/arm64).
Read the docs here for more info.
The docker-clojure build tool has a test suite that can be run via the
bb run test script.