Dockerfile

# Use an official Python image as the base
FROM python:3.9-slim

# Set environment variables to ensure Python behaves well in Docker
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1

# Set the working directory in the container
WORKDIR /app

# Install system dependencies for Python and the app (e.g., build tools, if needed)
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    build-essential \
    libpq-dev \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Copy only the requirements first for efficient Docker caching
COPY requirements.txt /app/requirements.txt

# Install Python dependencies
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

# Copy the rest of the application code
COPY . /app

# Expose the application's port (adjust if needed)
EXPOSE 5000

# Health check to ensure the app is running
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
    CMD curl --fail http://localhost:5000/health || exit 1

# Default command to run the application
CMD ["python", "app.py"]