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title = "Official Repositories on Docker Hub"
description = "Guidelines for Official Repositories on Docker Hub"
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# Official Repositories on Docker Hub

The Docker [Official Repositories](http://registry.hub.docker.com/official) are
a curated set of Docker repositories that are promoted on Docker Hub. They are
designed to:

* Provide essential base OS repositories (for example,
  [`ubuntu`](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/ubuntu/),
  [`centos`](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/centos/)) that serve as the
  starting point for the majority of users.

* Provide drop-in solutions for popular programming language runtimes, data
  stores, and other services, similar to what a Platform-as-a-Service (PAAS)
  would offer.

* Exemplify [`Dockerfile` best practices](/articles/dockerfile_best-practices)
  and provide clear documentation to serve as a reference for other `Dockerfile`
  authors.

* Ensure that security updates are applied in a timely manner. This is
  particularly important as many Official Repositories are some of the most
  popular on Docker Hub.

* Provide a channel for software vendors to redistribute up-to-date and
  supported versions of their products. Organization accounts on Docker Hub can
  also serve this purpose, without the careful review or restrictions on what
  can be published.

Docker, Inc. sponsors a dedicated team that is responsible for reviewing and
publishing all Official Repositories content. This team works in collaboration
with upstream software maintainers, security experts, and the broader Docker
community.

While it is preferrable to have upstream software authors maintaining their
corresponding Official Repositories, this is not a strict requirement. Creating
and maintaining images for Official Repositories is a public process. It takes
place openly on GitHub where participation is encouraged. Anyone can provide
feedback, contribute code, suggest process changes, or even propose a new
Official Repository.

## Should I use Official Repositories?

New Docker users are encouraged to use the Official Repositories in their
projects. These repositories have clear documentation, promote best practices,
and are designed for the most common use cases. Advanced users are encouraged to
review the Official Repositories as part of their `Dockerfile` learning process.

A common rationale for diverging from Official Repositories is to optimize for
image size. For instance, many of the programming language stack images contain
a complete build toolchain to support installation of modules that depend on
optimized code. An advanced user could build a custom image with just the
necessary pre-compiled libraries to save space.

A number of language stacks such as
[`python`](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/python/) and
[`ruby`](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/ruby/) have `-slim` tag variants
designed to fill the need for optimization.  Even when these "slim" variants are
insufficient, it is still recommended to inherit from an Official Repository
base OS image to leverage the ongoing maintenance work, rather than duplicating
these efforts.

## How can I get involved?

All Official Repositories contain a **User Feedback** section in their
documentation which covers the details for that specific repository. In most
cases, the GitHub repository which contains the Dockerfiles for an Official
Repository also has an active issue tracker. General feedback and support
questions should be directed to `#docker-library` on Freenode IRC.

## How do I create a new Official Repository?

From a high level, an Official Repository starts out as a proposal in the form
of a set of GitHub pull requests.  You'll find detailed and objective proposal
requirements in the following GitHub repositories:

* [docker-library/official-images](https://github.com/docker-library/official-images)

* [docker-library/docs](https://github.com/docker-library/docs)

The Official Repositories team, with help from community contributors, formally
review each proposal and provide feedback to the author. This initial review
process may require a bit of back and forth before the proposal is accepted.

There are also subjective considerations during the review process. These
subjective concerns boil down to the basic question: "is this image generally
useful?"  For example, the [`python`](https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/python/)
Official Repository is "generally useful" to the large Python developer
community, whereas an obscure text adventure game written in Python last week is
not.

When a new proposal is accepted, the author becomes responsibile for keeping
their images up-to-date and responding to user feedback.  The Official
Repositories team becomes responsibile for publishing the images and
documentation on Docker Hub.  Updates to the Official Repository follow the same
pull request process, though with less review. The Official Repositories team
ultimately acts as a gatekeeper for all changes, which helps mitigate the risk
of quality and security issues from being introduced.

> **Note**: If you are interested in proposing an Official Repository, but would
> like to discuss it with Docker, Inc. privately first, please send your
> inquiries to partners@docker.com.  There is no fast-track or pay-for-status
> option.
