If you want your Docker images to be small and you still want fast builds, multi-stage images are the way to go. And yet, you might find that multi-stage builds are actually quite slow in practice, in particular when running in your build pipeline. If that’s happening, a bit of digging is likely to show that even though you copied your standard build script, somehow the first stage of the Dockerfile gets rebuilt every single time. Unless you’re very careful, Docker’s build cache often won’t work for multi-stage builds—and that means your build is slow. What’s going on? In this article you will learn: Why multi-stage builds don’t work with the standard build process you’re used to for single-stage images. How to solve the problem and get fast builds. Note: Outside the topic under discussion, the Dockerfiles in this article are not examples of best practices, since the added complexity would obscure the main point of the article. To ensure you’re writing secure, correct, fast Dockerfiles, consider my quickstart…