Python

Many container images start with FROM python:3.x. What gets imported is not only Python, its a preassembled filesystem of decisions you didn’t make. Understanding what’s inherited from the base image is key to building container images. Instead of implicitly trusting what’s included with the base image, think of the image as a collection of artifacts that are intentionally assembled. Large Container Images The official Python container image hosted on Docker Hub is a great demonstration of inheriting unknown layers. For Linux environments, the Python image comes with either a Debian or Alpine base image. Both base images come with additional applications not required by Python. ...

OpenAPI is a specification for documenting HTTP APIs for both humans and machines to consume. As OpenAPI is a specification, it is language agnostic. OpenAPI relies on generators for translating the specification. There’s more than just documentation that’s generated. Generators also create language-specific interfaces, tooling, and contracts. In some ways the OpenAPI pattern reminds me of either protobuf with gRPC or ORM schema-first design. As a result, a declarative API is created by the tooling. ...

I’m looking at how object storage systems manage data on disk. Especially the idea of using append only archives with an index for fast retrieveal. While reading Facebook’s Haystack design, I noticed similarities to the tar file format and the potential to implement something similar at the local scale. Haystack Overview There are several components mentioned in the original Haystack paper, but at the core is the Haystack Store, where end user image files are physically kept. Instead of writing files directly to the filesystem, images are appended to a large file called a volume, which acts as an append-only archive. Each volume is typically capped at around 100 GB and is aligned to 8-byte offsets. Image files within this volume are referred to as needles. ...