Alpine containers are nice if you're just looking at size. But they break down once you `docker exec` into them to try to debug something:
$ docker exec -ti mycontainer /bin/bash
stat /bin/bash: no such file or directory
$ docker exec -ti mycontainer /bin/sh
/ # curl https://localhost:5000/
/bin/sh: curl: not found
/ # strace $command
/bin/sh: strace: not found
Thats not really broken. It is just a minimal image. If you want more pacakages then install them via the Dockerfile before you fire up the image. I like starting with a bare container. For example I might take an alpine image, install openvpn and use it to serve an always on vpn connection to other containers. The VPN container doesnt need a shell or anything else really. The only thing I want to see when I attach to the container is what openvpn is spitting out.
Well yeah, "break down" was probably too much of a term. I did not mean to diss Alpine; I just meant to point out that the downsides of minimal images should be carefully considered.
