The latest release of Docker Desktop introduces air-gapped containers to improve security and compliance, better integration with cloud-based builds to improve performance, a Compose configuration file viewer, and more.
Air-gapped containers allow administrators to restrict access to the Internet, including where data can be uploaded to or downloaded from. However, they are free to access the internal network.
Docker Desktop can apply a custom set of proxy rules to network traffic from containers. The proxy can be configured to allow network connections, reject network connections, and tunnel through an HTTP or SOCKS proxy.
Air-gapped containers can be configured using a new []containerProxy option in the admin-settings.json file, which describes which policy to apply to container traffic. This includes whether developers can override proxy settings, whether a Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC) file should be used, and which ports should be transparently proxied.
You can also use Docker Desktop with Docker Build Cloud, which can speed up builds up to 39 times. One significant advantage of the Docker Build Cloud is you can use native AMD and ARM builders for multi-architecture builds without resorting to configuring and using emulators. Additionally, when teams work on the same repo, they will benefit from a shared cache, which prevents the creation of duplicated layers. Each Docker subscription includes a number of build minutes, ranging from 50 minutes/month for a free personal subscription to 800 minutes/month for a business subscription.
Users running Windows on Arm will be able to run the latest Docker Desktop natively. Docker warns that this is still considered beta-quality, though.
This version will be available behind authentication and is aimed at users with Arm-based Windows devices. This feature ensures that developers using these devices can take full advantage of Docker’s capabilities.
Two other new features that are still in beta are the Compose File Viewer and support for inspecting GitHub Actions builds directly in Docker Desktop.
The Compose File Viewer allows developers to see their Compose configuration files in Docker Desktop. The viewer provides a view of the configuration YAML at a glance and supports syntax highlighting.
Using the new feature to inspect GitHub Actions builds, you can get in-depth summaries of builds, including performance metrics, cache utilization, and detailed error reports.
As a final note, Docker Desktop 4.31 also brings many bug fixes and security improvements, which you can read about in the official release notes.