14 DAY TRIAL // The developers of the famous open-source Docker Linux container engine have recently announced that the first RC (Release Candidate) version of the anticipated Docker 1.8 app is now available for download and testing.
According to the comprehensive changelog, attached at the end of the article for reference, Docker 1.8.0 RC1 brings with it a vast array of new features and fixes many of the annoying bugs reported by users since the Docker 1.7 release.
Among some of the most interesting changes introduced in Docker 1.8.0 RC1, we can mention support for repository names with a single character, support for ignoring mtime when building the cache, and support for checking valid digests in tag names.
Furthermore, the tar layers have been made deterministic between registries, trusted push, pull, and build are now disabled by default, deleting of image of a running container is no longer allowed, and the app now displays more accurate error description for invalid tag names.
The CLI and Runtime sections have received many improvements
In addition to the changes mentioned above, Docker 1.8.0 RC1 brings many improvements to the CLI and Runtime sections of the software, such as support for DOCKER_CONFIG/--config, addition of a "--type" argument to the "docker inspect" command, and the addition of various formatting options to the "docker ps" command.
Moreover, memory swappiness tuning options have been added, along with a logging driver for Graylog Extended Log Format (GELF) via User Datagram Protocol (UDP), a new Fluentd logging driver, a syslog-facility option, LXC execdriver compatibility with recent versions of the LXC software, and a rollover log driver.
Last but not least, approximately 27 issues have been resolved in the first Release Candidate version of Docker 1.8, but we're certain that the next RC releases will contain even more bugfixes. You can download Docker 1.8.0 RC1 right now from Softpedia, but keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, not suitable for production use.