Arch Linux provides Docker images both in the [official DockerHub library](https://hub.docker.com/_/archlinux) (`docker pull library/archlinux:latest`) and in our [own repository](https://hub.docker.com/r/archlinux/archlinux) (`docker pull archlinux/archlinux:latest`).

Images in the official library are updated weekly while our own repository is updated daily.

Two versions of the image are provided: `base` (~160MB) and `base-devel` (~240MB), containing the respective meta package / package group. Both are available as tags with `latest` pointing to `base`. Additionally, images are tagged with their date and build job number, f.e. `base-devel-20201118.0.9436`.

While the images are regularly kept up to date it is strongly recommended running `pacman -Syu` right after starting a container due to the rolling release nature of Arch Linux.

* Provide the Arch experience in a Docker image

* Provide the simplest but complete image to `base` and `base-devel` on a regular basis

* `pacman` needs to work out of the box

* All installed packages have to be kept unmodified

[This repository](https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archlinux-docker) contains all scripts and files needed to create a Docker image for Arch Linux.

Make sure your user can directly interact with Docker (i.e. `docker info` works).

Run `make docker-image-base` to build the `archlinux:base` image with the

`base` meta package installed. You can also run `make docker-image-base-devel` to

build the image `archlinux:base-devel` which additionally has the `base-devel` group installed.

Daily images are build with scheduled [GitLabCI](https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archlinux-docker/-/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml) using our own runner infrastructure. Initially root filesystem archives are constructed and provided in our [package registry](https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archlinux-docker/-/packages). The released multi-stage Dockerfile downloads those archives and verifies their integrity before unpacking it into a Docker image layer. Images are build using [kaniko](https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/kaniko) to avoid using privileged Docker containers, which also publishes them to our DockerHub repository.

Weekly releases to the official DockerHub library use the same pipeline as daily builds. Updates are provided as automatic [pull requests](https://github.com/docker-library/official-images/pulls?q=is%3Apr+archlinux+is%3Aclosed+author%3Aarchlinux-github) to the [official-images library](https://github.com/docker-library/official-images/blob/master/library/archlinux), whose GitHub pipeline will build the images using our provided rootfs archives and Dockerfiles.

Changes in Git feature branches are build and tested using the pipeline as well. Development images are uploaded to our [GitLab Container Registry](https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archlinux-docker/container_registry).