distribution/README.md

# Distribution

The Docker toolset to pack, ship, store, and deliver content.

This repository's main product is the Docker Registry 2.0 implementation
for storing and distributing Docker images. It supersedes the [docker/docker-
registry](https://github.com/docker/docker-registry) project with a new API
design, focused around security and performance.

This repository contains the following components:

|**Component**       |Description                                                                                                                                                                                         |
|--------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **registry**       | An implementation of the [Docker Registry HTTP API V2](docs/spec/api.md) for use with docker 1.6+.                                                                                                  |
| **libraries**      | A rich set of libraries for interacting with,distribution components. Please see [godoc](http://godoc.org/github.com/docker/distribution) for details. **Note**: These libraries are **unstable**. |
| **dist**           | An _experimental_ tool to provide distribution, oriented functionality without the `docker` daemon.                                                                                                |
| **specifications** | _Distribution_ related specifications are available in [docs/spec](docs/spec)                                                                                                                        |
| **documentation**  | Docker's full documentation set is available at [docs.docker.com](http://docs.docker.com). This repository [contains the subset](docs/index.md) related just to the registry.                                                                                                                                          |

### How does this integrate with Docker engine?

This project should provide an implementation to a V2 API for use in the [Docker
core project](https://github.com/docker/docker). The API should be embeddable
and simplify the process of securely pulling and pushing content from `docker`
daemons.

### What are the long term goals of the Distribution project?

The _Distribution_ project has the further long term goal of providing a
secure tool chain for distributing content. The specifications, APIs and tools
should be as useful with Docker as they are without.

Our goal is to design a professional grade and extensible content distribution
system that allow users to:

* Enjoy an efficient, secured and reliable way to store, manage, package and
  exchange content
* Hack/roll their own on top of healthy open-source components
* Implement their own home made solution through good specs, and solid
  extensions mechanism.

## More about Registry 2.0

The new registry implementation provides the following benefits:

- faster push and pull
- new, more efficient implementation
- simplified deployment
- pluggable storage backend
- webhook notifications

For information on upcoming functionality, please see [ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.md).

### Who needs to deploy a registry?

By default, Docker users pull images from Docker's public registry instance.
[Installing Docker](http://docs.docker.com/installation) gives users this
ability. Users can also push images to a repository on Docker's public registry,
if they have a [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/) account. 

For some users and even companies, this default behavior is sufficient. For
others, it is not. 

For example, users with their own software products and may want to maintain an
registry for private, company images. Also, you may wish to deploy your own
image repository for images used to test or in continuous integration. For these
use cases and others, [deploying your own registry instance](docs/deploying.md)
may be the better choice.

## Contribute

Please see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for details on how to contribute
issues, fixes, and patches to this project. If you are contributing code, see
the instructions for [building a development environment](docs/building.md).

## Support

If any issues are encountered while using the _Distribution_ project, several
avenues are available for support:

<table>
<tr>
	<th align="left">
	IRC
	</th>
	<td>
	#docker-distribution on FreeNode
	</td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<th align="left">
	Issue Tracker
	</th>
	<td>
	github.com/docker/distribution/issues
	</td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<th align="left">
	Google Groups
	</th>
	<td>
	https://groups.google.com/a/dockerproject.org/forum/#!forum/distribution
	</td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<th align="left">
	Mailing List
	</th>
	<td>
	docker@dockerproject.org
	</td>
</tr>
</table>


## License

This project is distributed under [Apache License, Version 2.0](LICENSE.md).