mini-keep-alive

A minimal, long-running Alpine Linux container preloaded with common network diagnostic tools. Useful as a sidecar, jump pod, or troubleshooting container in Kubernetes/Docker environments where you need curl, dig, ping, traceroute, etc. without installing them on demand.

Quick start

docker run -d --name keepalive <user>/mini-keep-alive
docker exec -it keepalive sh

The container runs sleep infinity so it stays up until stopped.

Image details

• Base: alpine:3.20
• Platform: linux/amd64
• Entrypoint: sleep infinity

Included tools

Package	Provides
curl	HTTP/HTTPS client
wget	HTTP/FTP downloader
iproute2	ip, ss, tc
net-tools	ifconfig, netstat, route, arp
iputils	ping, tracepath, arping
bind-tools	dig, nslookup, host
busybox-extras	telnet, tftp, additional BusyBox apps
tzdata	Timezone data
ca-certificates	Root CA bundle for TLS

Usage examples

Kubernetes debug pod

kubectl run debug --image=<user>/mini-keep-alive --restart=Never
kubectl exec -it debug -- sh

Docker Compose sidecar

services:
  netdebug:
    image: <user>/mini-keep-alive
    network_mode: service:app

One-off network check

docker run --rm <user>/mini-keep-alive curl -sI https://example.com

Source

Dockerfile and issues: https://github.com/zheyi-zhu/mini-keep-alive