brennanMKE · September 10, 2025 20:46 · Sep 10, 2025
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+# 🚀 Why Docker for Swift on AL2023?
+
+* **AL2023 has no official Swift toolchain** → library mismatches, no RPM packages.
+* **Docker solves this** by running Swift in a compatible Ubuntu userland (or nightly images) while still using the host’s Linux kernel.
+* **Overhead is tiny** → CPU/memory nearly native, only extra disk space for images.
+
+---
+
+# 🛠 Step 1: Install Docker on AL2023
+
+```bash
+sudo dnf update -y
+sudo dnf install -y docker
+sudo systemctl enable --now docker
+sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
+newgrp docker
+docker version   # verify
+```
+
+---
+
+# 🛠 Step 2: Choose a Swift Docker image
+
+Two main sources:
+
+1. **Stable releases** (safe for production)
+
+   * Hosted at [hub.docker.com/\_/swift](https://hub.docker.com/_/swift)
+   * Example:
+
+     ```bash
+     docker pull swift:6.1.2-jammy-slim
+     ```
+
+2. **Nightlies / unreleased versions (e.g. Swift 6.2)**
+
+   * Hosted at [hub.docker.com/r/swiftlang/swift](https://hub.docker.com/r/swiftlang/swift)
+   * Example:
+
+     ```bash
+     docker pull swiftlang/swift:nightly-6.2-jammy
+     ```
+
+---
+
+# 🛠 Step 3: Run Swift interactively
+
+```bash
+docker run --rm -it swift:6.1.2-jammy swift --version
+```
+
+(or swap in `swiftlang/swift:nightly-6.2-jammy`)
+
+---
+
+# 🛠 Step 4: Develop with your source code
+
+Mount your project into the container:
+
+```bash
+mkdir ~/swift-app && cd ~/swift-app
+
+docker run --rm -it -v "$PWD":/app -w /app swift:6.1.2-jammy \
+  bash -lc 'swift package init --type executable && swift build && swift test'
+```
+
+Build/run repeatedly by re-invoking `docker run ...`.
+
+---
+
+# 🛠 Step 5: Package for deployment (multi-stage Dockerfile)
+
+Example `Dockerfile`:
+
+```dockerfile
+# --- Build stage ---
+FROM swift:6.1.2-jammy AS builder
+WORKDIR /build
+COPY . .
+RUN swift build -c release
+
+# --- Runtime stage ---
+FROM ubuntu:22.04
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    libicu70 libxml2 libbsd0 zlib1g tzdata ca-certificates && \
+    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+WORKDIR /app
+COPY --from=builder /build/.build/release/YourTarget /usr/local/bin/app
+EXPOSE 8080
+CMD ["/usr/local/bin/app"]
+```
+
+Build & run:
+
+```bash
+docker build -t my-swift-app .
+docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 my-swift-app
+```
+
+---
+
+# 🛠 Step 6: (Optional) Push to ECR
+
+For production, push the image to **Amazon ECR**, then pull/run it on EC2 or ECS/Fargate.
+
+---
+
+# ✅ Key Takeaways
+
+* Use **Docker** to sidestep missing Swift support on AL2023.
+* Pick **`swift:<version>-jammy`** for stable, or **`swiftlang/swift:nightly-6.2-*`** for bleeding edge.
+* Overhead is negligible compared to native execution.
+* Develop by **mounting code into containers**, deploy with a **multi-stage Dockerfile**.