[ImJasonH]

I love seeing folks learn that container images are just fancy tar files and JSON and are therefore buildable by normal tools.

Along my own journey of demystification I made a few toy container image registries over the years that generated and served container images from nothing but the URL itself:

https://ko.kontain.me builds a go application on demand and serves it atop a minimal base image

https://apko.kontain.me builds a base image containing packages listed in the URL, again on demand.

The latest addition, https://git.kontain.me serves an image with the specified git repo already checked out in the image.

None of these should be used for anything serious but they were fun to make and play with. :)

random.kontain.me has been uncharacteristically useful in debugging image caching scenarios.

[mathfailure]

I don't know any scenario where I'd need any of that, but I love such things regardless.

About git.kontain.me - what if I'd like to setup my own copy of such a service and would like it to work with a non-public git repo, how to pass credentials? Since you support only cloning over https (btw, why not over ssh as well?) - one could use an URL of format user:pass@host:port/path/to/repo, would that work?

[ImJasonH]

Unfortunately due to the limitations of a valid image ref you can't include creds like that.

You can fork the registry and include your own creds in the backend when it pulls the repo though.

[wofo]

I sometimes wonder why there aren't more bespoke container tools (like yours). Would people be willing to pay for stuff like what you have built, if someone took the time to "productionize" it? Or is there no market?

[ImJasonH]

AFAIK people only begrudgingly pay for Docker and it does way waaay more.

I have yet to receive any commercial interest in any of these tools :)