Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

• 6.2.0-alpine3.10, 6.2.0-alpine, 6.2-alpine, 6-alpine, latest-alpine, alpine (alpine/6.2/Dockerfile)
• 6.2.0-debian-stretch, 6.2.0-debian, 6.2-debian, 6-debian, latest-debian, debian (debian/6.2/Dockerfile)
• 6.1.1-alpine3.9, 6.1.1-alpine, 6.1-alpine (alpine/6.1/Dockerfile)
• 6.1.1-debian-stretch, 6.1.1-debian, 6.1-debian (debian/6.1/Dockerfile)
• 6.0.2-alpine3.8, 6.0.2-alpine, 6.0-alpine (alpine/6.0/Dockerfile)
• 6.0.2-debian-stretch, 6.0.2-debian, 6.0lts-debian, 6.0-debian (debian/6.0/Dockerfile)
• 5.2.1-alpine3.7, 5.2.1-alpine, 5.2-alpine, 5-alpine (alpine/5.2/Dockerfile)
• 5.2.1-debian-stretch, 5.2.1-debian, 5.2-debian, 5-debian (debian/5.2/Dockerfile)
• 4.1.9-alpine3.6, 4.1.9-alpine, 4.1-alpine, 4-alpine (alpine/4.1/Dockerfile)

What is Varnish Cache?

Varnish is an HTTP accelerator designed for content-heavy dynamic web sites as well as APIs.

For more details, check the following links:
https://varnish-cache.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varnish_(software)
https://github.com/varnishcache/varnish-cache

Environment Variables

• LISTEN_ADDRESS
  Client requests listen address.
  Used in varnishd -a.
  Value is left empty by default.

• LISTEN_PORT
  Client requests listen address port.
  Used in varnishd -a.
  Default value: 8080.

• MANAGEMENT_INTERFACE_ADDRESS
  Management interface address.
  Used in varnishd -T <address[:port]>.
  Value is left empty by default.

• MANAGEMENT_INTERFACE_PORT
  Management interface address port.
  Used in varnishd -T <address[:port]>.
  Default value: 6082.

• BACKEND_DEFAULT_HOST
  Can be used in file default.vcl.template only.
  Default value: 127.0.0.1.

• BACKEND_DEFAULT_PORT
  Can be used in file default.vcl.template only.
  Default value: 8080.

• VSL_RECLEN
  Used in varnishd -p <vsl_reclen=value>.
  Default value: 255.

  For more details, check the following link:
  https://varnish-cache.org/docs/trunk/reference/varnishd.html#vsl-reclen

• MALLOC
  Used in varnishd -s <malloc[,size]>.
  Default value: 256m.

  For more details, check the following link:
  https://varnish-cache.org/docs/trunk/users-guide/storage-backends.html

Starting a Docker container

Run in detached mode:

docker run -d aka1/varnish:<docker_tag_name>

For more details, check the following link:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/run/

Starting a Docker container with Docker Compose

Run in detached mode:

docker-compose up -d

For more details, check the following link:
https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/up/

For a quick start, check the file docker-compose.yml.dist.

Building a Docker image

docker build -t <image_name> <dockerfile_path_or_url>

For more details, check the following link:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/build/

Using custom VCL file

In most cases,
A custom VCL file should be used with this Docker image.
(Instead of using the default one provided by the image.)

That could be done by using
the -v or the --volume flag in docker run command.
(The same applies to Docker Compose.)

For more details about volumes in Docker, check the following link:
https://docs.docker.com/storage/volumes/

The file name in the second field of flag -v
(where the file is mounted in the container),
must be named default.vcl.template.
And its full path is: /etc/varnish/default.vcl.template.

That would allow environment variables (if used)
to be substituted with real values.

Example:

docker run \
  -v <custom_vcl_file_path>:/etc/varnish/default.vcl.template \
  -d aka1/varnish:<docker_tag_name>

Passing arguments to varnishd

It is possible to pass arguments to varnishd,
by setting them in docker run command.

For example:

docker run -d aka1/varnish:<docker_tag_name> \
  -b 127.0.0.1:8080

However, by using this approach,
all the preset/default parameters that are already set in the image
will not be included.

And all varnishd required parameters must be set, as a result.

For more details, check the following link:
https://varnish-cache.org/docs/trunk/reference/varnishd.html

Authors

• Ammar K.

License

GNU General Public License version 2