The Sundarban
Published Jan 25, 2026, 4:00 PM EST
Afam’s abilities in tech publishing dates attend to 2018, when he worked for Acquire Tech More straightforward. Over the years, he has constructed a repute for publishing excessive-quality guides, stories, pointers, and explainer articles, covering Windows, Linux, and launch supply tools. His work has been featured on high websites, including Technical Ustad, Windows Legend, Guiding Tech, Alphr, and Next of Windows.
He holds a indispensable degree in Pc Science and is a noteworthy recommend for knowledge privateness and security, with a complete lot of pointers, movies, and tutorials on the self-discipline published on the Fuzo Tech YouTube channel.
When he’s no longer working, he likes to utilize time with his household, biking, or tending to his backyard.
One of my very finest frustrations with Docker images is how enormous they are able to glean. No subject how I strive to in moderation structure my Dockerfiles and specific instructions I utilize to administer Docker, I’m silent at their mercy. With the exception of the wasted disk dwelling, builds take without discontinuance, and I utilize relatively a couple of time tracking down pointless dependencies. I authorized this as unavoidable until I attempted SlimToolKit.
At the initiating, I was skeptical because its promise sounded too correct to be apt. It would shrink my containers dramatically however no longer touch my Dockerfiles or mess with my workflow. Alternatively, what followed after I inclined the tool used to be an witness-opening discovery. I seen immediate wins and learned particular classes in container optimization.
SlimToolKit
SlimToolKit is a tool to simplify and optimize your developer abilities with containers. It shrinks Docker containers without altering the Dockerfiles.
Docker image bloat
The invisible weight your containers lift
I had appropriate instruct up a new Linux Mint installation and, to check a couple of tools, I effect in Docker and a couple of servers. Within appropriate two days, I checked my container sizes and used to be panicked at how enormous they had been for a straightforward check. Nextcloud used to be occupying 1.46GB, and my native media server, Jellyfin, took up 1.55GB. Even Nginx, which is extraordinarily mild-weight, sat on 161MB of dwelling. I concluded this used to be inevitable given stir images and leftover dev tools, shells, and caches.
Alternatively, after running the docker history hiss, it was sure the negate wasn’t my Dockerfiles. Layers that are no longer wanted at runtime had been bloating my images. These consist of libraries and capabilities effect in appropriate in case they are wanted. For the first time, I was appreciating how opaque container sizes are. It is likely you’ll perhaps perhaps perhaps perhaps’t deem any image is lean without first checking its pronounce.
It was sure why SlimToolKit would possibly perhaps perhaps perhaps perhaps fix the negate. It can actually evaluate and analyze containers dynamically, watching what they utilize and what the container doesn’t utilize.
How it works and what it would manufacture
Up to now, to optimize my containers, I’ve tried multi-stage builds, kit cleaning, and custom scripts; they all felt too fragile. SlimToolKit used to be assorted. It fastened the negate by observing the container whereas it ran, tracking which recordsdata it inclined or accessed, and building a image that included entirely those recordsdata.
It used to be also clear. My first time running the slim admire hiss, I seen the CLI quit at particular components, then instructed me for brand spanking new enter. All the pieces it analyzed, including libraries and non permanent recordsdata, used to be certain to evaluate. This used to be an plan that gave me protect watch over and used to be assorted from assorted optimizers.
It removed unused shells, binaries, and capabilities. This no longer entirely diminished image size however also improved security by decreasing the attack surface.
My true setup and first check flee
Putting in SlimToolKit is terribly a easy route of. You first must confirm that Docker is effect in and running, then download the SlimToolKit image. It is likely you’ll perhaps perhaps perhaps perhaps apply these steps:
Dawdle the hiss below to expose whereas you possess got Docker effect in; you are going to possess to silent glean an output comparable to Docker model 24.0.0, admire xyz. docker –model
If Docker isn’t running, you would flee the instructions below to launch it: sudo systemctl launch docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
Pull the authentic Docker image for SlimToolKit by running this hiss: docker pull dslim/slim
SlimToolKit runs inside of a container, so there’s no installation wanted beyond this. My first check used to be running SlimToolKit on my Nginx container, which stood at round 161MB. To launch the components, I ran the hiss below:
docker flee –rm -v /var/flee/docker.sock:/var/flee/docker.sock dslim/slim admire –target nginx:most traditional –mark nginx-slim:most traditional
At some level of the components, I could perhaps perhaps perhaps perhaps leer how SlimToolKit inspected the image. At one level, it spun up a non permanent container, and it also probed HTTP endpoints. Eventually, I recorded a 9.58x reduction, from 161MB to 16.8MB. This gave me the self perception to scurry forward with nervous assorted containers, and the implications had been equally spectacular: Netdata went from 1.24GB to 295MB, and Uptime Kuma went from 448MB to 135MB.
Lessons, pointers, and making this share of your workflow
What I learned along the manner
After the usage of SlimToolKit, the first lesson I learned used to be that container optimization must now not be a painful route of. For the first time, I could perhaps perhaps perhaps perhaps fix enormous containers without forsaking my true work. It implemented dynamic prognosis at some stage within the components. This used to be a long way extra efficient than manually tinkering with Dockerfiles.
In the components, I discovered time-saving workflow tips. As an illustration, the slim xray hiss presentations me what’s bloating my container even earlier than I launch nervous it. I can troubleshoot minimal containers by running the slim debug hiss, eliminating the must write custom scripts. I also realized that I can retain soft transitions by documenting paths for multi-container setups.
Alternatively, the most valuable studying used to be that the usage of SlimToolKit wasn’t a one-off abilities; I can integrate it into CI/CD pipelines to be certain future builds are leaner.
Linked
8 Docker Easiest Practices You Can also merely silent Know About
Acquire sure you’re the usage of Docker images to their elephantine fabricate with these helpful pointers.
