Nine quick tips for software containerization
Fig 3
Mounting external data to a Docker container at runtime.
This command illustrates the separation between software (inside the container) and data (external to the container). The -v flag binds the host directory/path/to/data to the container’s /data directory, making external files accessible to the containerized analysis without embedding them in the image. This approach keeps images small, portable, and free from data privacy or licensing concerns while maintaining clear provenance of required inputs.