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I haven't used packer but it seems like operates at a different level? Dockerfiles are mostly about _provisioning_ an existing system but packer was more about getting correct configuration in place for VM providers and allowing you to specify strings to be run for provisioning.

Edit: not an edit, but I realize it's a double standard to think of Dockerfile's as anything but specifying strings for provisioning.

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Packer is for building base images. You obviously need some provisioning there as well, but the focus is definitely on shipping iso images. Vagrant fits what you're after, but it'd wager you wouldn't be happy with it either.

It's essentially a Ruby dsl with the same goal as docker, though vagrant is way older (and still works just fine if you actually need such automated provisioning).

Testkitchen uses it if you're into infrastructure automation and want to see what sysadmins had pre docker.

Packer can be lower level but it can also do what Dockerfile do, see https://www.packer.io/docs/builders/docker.html for the Docker support in Packer.

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