This is a simple python image that installs and clones necessary dependencies relevant for using the Dockerfile generating scripts using the configuration files located here in osrf/docker_images, and the templates located at osrf/docker_templates.

We'll go through an example of using this Dockerfile to update the other Dockerfiles, lets take ros indigo for example:

Build the image using the makefile

make build

Run the scrip from this folder. This will mount the local repo folder into the container, and launch a bash sessions

./run.sh bash

Once inside the container we can use the create_dockerfiles.py python script to update the Dockerfile and exit

cd ros
./create_dockerfiles.py dir -d indigo/
exit

You should now see the relative changes in the local directories. You can check the new file timestamps to be sure.