Buildah
Buildah is an open-source command-line tool for building Open Container Initiative (OCI) container images, allowing developers to create lightweight, secure, and portable images without requiring a full container runtime like Docker. It provides fine-grained control over image layers and supports building from scratch or existing images, making it ideal for CI/CD pipelines and automated workflows. Buildah integrates seamlessly with Podman and other container tools in the Red Hat ecosystem.
Developers should learn Buildah when they need to build container images in environments where Docker is not available or when they require more security and flexibility, such as in rootless or daemonless setups. It is particularly useful for creating minimal images to reduce attack surfaces and improve performance in production deployments, and for automating image builds in Kubernetes or cloud-native applications.