dockerfilegraph

dockerfilegraph visualizes your multi-stage Dockerfiles.

It uses Graphviz to create a visual representation of the build process. The build graph contains the following nodes:

• All build stages
• The default build target (highlighted in grey)
• External images (with dashed borders)

The edges of the build graph represent:

• FROM ... dependencies (with a solid line and a full arrow head)
• COPY --from=... dependencies (with a dashed line and an empty arrow head)
• RUN --mount=(.*)from=... dependencies (with a dotted line and an empty diamond arrow head)

You can add an optional legend to the graph and change the output format and resolution. For all the details, see the options below.

Example Output

Dockerfile graph including a --legend

Dockerfile graph visualizing the image --layers

Complex Dockerfile graph created with --concentrate --nodesep 0.3 --unflatten 4

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• A multi-stage Dockerfile

Installation and Usage

Running dockerfilegraph without any arguments will create a Dockerfile.pdf in your current working directory. This PDF contains a visual graph representation of your multi-stage Dockerfile.

docker / nerdctl

Image based on Ubuntu 24.04

docker run \
  --rm \
  --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  --workdir /workspace \
  --volume "$(pwd)":/workspace \
  ghcr.io/patrickhoefler/dockerfilegraph

Image based on Alpine Linux 3.20

docker run \
  --rm \
  --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  --workdir /workspace \
  --volume "$(pwd)":/workspace \
  ghcr.io/patrickhoefler/dockerfilegraph:alpine

Homebrew

brew install patrickhoefler/tap/dockerfilegraph
dockerfilegraph

toolctl

Make sure that Graphviz is installed locally.

Then:

toolctl install dockerfilegraph
dockerfilegraph

Build from Source

For all build variants, make sure that go and make are installed locally.

Native

Make sure that Graphviz is installed locally.

Then:

make build
./dockerfilegraph

Container (Alpine)

make build-docker-image-alpine
docker run \
  --rm \
  --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  --workdir /workspace \
  --volume "$(pwd)":/workspace \
  dockerfilegraph:alpine

Container (Ubuntu)

make build-docker-image-ubuntu
docker run \
  --rm \
  --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  --workdir /workspace \
  --volume "$(pwd)":/workspace \
  dockerfilegraph:ubuntu

More Options

❯ dockerfilegraph --help
dockerfilegraph visualizes your multi-stage Dockerfile.
It creates a visual graph representation of the build process.

Usage:
  dockerfilegraph [flags]

Flags:
  -c, --concentrate             concentrate the edges (default false)
  -d, --dpi uint                dots per inch of the PNG export (default 96)
  -e, --edgestyle               style of the graph edges, one of: default, solid (default default)
  -f, --filename string         name of the Dockerfile (default "Dockerfile")
  -h, --help                    help for dockerfilegraph
      --layers                  display all layers (default false)
      --legend                  add a legend (default false)
  -m, --max-label-length uint   maximum length of the node labels, must be at least 4 (default 20)
  -n, --nodesep float           minimum space between two adjacent nodes in the same rank (default 1)
  -o, --output                  output file format, one of: canon, dot, pdf, png, raw, svg (default pdf)
  -r, --ranksep float           minimum separation between ranks (default 0.5)
  -u, --unflatten uint          stagger length of leaf edges between [1,u] (default 0)
      --version                 display the version of dockerfilegraph

License

MIT