Difference between Docker registry and repository
I'm confused as to the difference between docker registries and repositories. It seems like the Docker documentation uses the two words interchangeably. Also, repositories are sometimes referred to as images, such as this from their docs:
In order to push a repository to its registry, you need to have named an image or committed your container to a named image as we saw here.
Now you can push this repository to the registry designated by its name or tag.
How can you push a repository to a registry? Aren't you pushing the image to the repository?
Docker registry is a service that is storing your docker images.
Docker registry could be hosted by a third party, as public or private registry, like one of the following registries:
- Docker Hub,
- Quay,
- Google Container Registry,
- AWS Container Registry
or you can host the docker registry by yourself
(see https://docs.docker.com/ee/dtr/ for more details).
Docker repository is a collection of different docker images with same name, that have different tags. Tag is alphanumeric identifier of the image within a repository.
For example see https://hub.docker.com/r/library/python/tags/. There are many different tags for the official python image, these tags are all members of the official python repository on the Docker Hub. Docker Hub is a Docker Registry hosted by Docker.
To find out more read:
- https://docs.docker.com/registry/
- https://github.com/docker/distribution
From the book Using Docker, Developing and deploying Software with Containers
Registries, Repositories, Images, and Tags
There is a hierarchical system for storing images. The following terminology is used:
Registry
A service responsible for hosting and distributing images. The default registry is the Docker Hub.
Repository
A collection of related images (usually providing different versions of the same application or service).
Tag
An alphanumeric identifier attached to images within a repository (e.g., 14.04 or stable ).
So the command docker pull amouat/revealjs:latest will download the image tagged latest within the amouat/revealjs repository from the Docker Hub registry.