Dockerfiles are great. They provide a zero-barrier-to-entry format for describing a single Docker image which is immediately clear to anyone reading them. But with that simplicity comes problems that become apparent as your adoption of Docker gathers pace. * Dockerfiles can inherit from other docker images, but images are not Dockerfiles * Dockerfile provides no built-in mechanism for creating abstractions, so as usage grows identical or similar instructions can be duplicated across many files * The Docker APi exposes a build endpoint, but the API is very course, taking Dockerfile as the transport rather than exposing the individual instructions * Dockerfiles are just that, files. So they can come from anywhere The one layer per line in a Dockerfile limitation can lead to an explosion of layers, which fail to take advantage of the promised space and performance benefits.