this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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I'd say it's more like a closed-off part of the filesystem but with networking and probably lots of other stuff closed off as well.
Updates on the host are separate from updates of the containers. Ideally the host has only the minimal stuff needed to run the containers.
Containers are usually updated when the contained apps are updated. That's actually my main concern with containers. When the main app doesn't need an update but some dependency needs one you have to actively update the dependency unless the app maintainers keep up with what their dependencies are doing. And usually you don't even know what the dependencies are. Because the whole point of containers is that you only care about the main app.
To elaborate on this, when you want an update, you "update the container." This usually means downloading an entirely new container image and replacing yours with the new one, which has new internal versions and data but works the exact same. You rely on the supplier of the container (if you didn't make it yourself) to do all of that for you, and you just receive the update when you request it.
So ideally, dependencies will be taken care of for you when the container updates, if you are using a pre-built container.