Announcement: Important Docker Updates!

[davidfrantz]

I want to share an important update for all FORCE users who are relying on pre-built containers:

From now on, all FORCE images will be built on a different base image (davidfrantz/base_image@fdc71b7)

The first version that successfully makes use of this is the latest dev version:

$ docker run --rm -it davidfrantz/force:dev bash
$ force-info -v
3.8.01-dev:::2025-09-01_12:35:17

This change will be carried into the next main release, too.

Most importantly, the base image was built on a different image, namely ghcr.io/osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.11.3. This results in a couple of changes:

1. The OS is up-to-date

   $ lsb_release -a
   No LSB modules are available.
   Distributor ID: Ubuntu
   Description:    Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS
   Release:        24.04
   Codename:       noble
   

2. The docker-internal default user is now ubuntu

   $ whoami
   ubuntu
   

3. GDAL is up-to-date, thus allowing use of its most recent features. In addition, as the FORCE image is built on top of a GDAL image, updating the GDAL version will be much easier in the future.

   $ gdal-config --version
   3.11.3
   

There are a couple other changes, too.

1. The base image was reduced in its complexity. Only libraries and tools required by FORCE are included. Before, the base image was also used in other projects, which has grown a bit chaotic.
2. OpenCV was updated to the latest stable version, and the installation was reduced to only the modules required by FORCE.

   $ opencv_version
   4.12.0
   

Both changes have reduced the image size.

[davidfrantz]

Ah, I forgot: please be aware! Updating core libraries such as GDAL and OpenCV might hurt technical reproducibility. It is expected that the results may be slightly different, and this is expected to be for the better!

[kelewinska]

Thanks David! And just to illustrate your point on the hampered reproducibility between different GDAL versions I will recall this discussion
Looking forward to test this version out!