Getting Started

Let's say you currently have a Dockerfile that looks something like this:

After you create your free account, then you can subscribe to image updates for dotnet/aspnet:6.0.

When you create your subscription, you'll get an email telling you to change your dotnet/aspnet:6.0 reference to dotnet/aspnet@sha256:060d945252e26eb3baa53c95912ce1a0515df664ab0a22bdd293a87ea98203de. This locks your Dockerfile to a specific release of the ASP.NET Core 6.0 base image.

So, you would check into source control an updated Dockerfile that looks like this:

Handling Update Notifications

When dotnet/aspnet:6.0 is updated (with Debian security updates or .NET Core runtime patches), image-watch.com will send you an email notifying you of the update, and telling you to change dotnet/aspnet@sha256:060d945252e26eb3baa53c95912ce1a0515df664ab0a22bdd293a87ea98203de to dotnet/aspnet@sha256:478b2a393451006d8c17ba3fb5858e40f077df795c768b8e813b6117c0efe41c.

Because these are unique hash strings, you can apply this across your entire repository using a basic text replacement.

Now you have an updated Dockerfile that you can check into source control with a commit message like "Updated dotnet/aspnet":

That's it! Now your images can stay up-to-date, and your base image updates also exist in your source control as explicit commits.

Tip: the emails we send also have a JSON file attachment, if you want to automate the text replacement and commit / pull request.