# Motivation

The [RouterOS `container.npk` feature](https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Container) is highly useful, but it is a custom development, not a copy of Docker Engine. Because of the stringent resource constraints on the bulk of MikroTik's devices, it is very thinly featured compared to the big-boy server container engines. The purpose of this document is not to denigrate the RouterOS or its developers; RouterOS serves a particular market, and its developers are working within those constraints. The intent here, rather, is to provide a mapping between what people expect of a fully-featured container engine and what you get in RouterOS. Where it makes sense, I try to provide workarounds.
The [RouterOS `container.npk` feature](https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Container) is highly useful, but it is a custom development written in-house by MikroTik, not a copy of Docker Engine. Because of the stringent resource constraints on the bulk of MikroTik's devices, it is very thinly featured compared to the big-boy server container engines. The purpose of this document is not to denigrate the RouterOS or its developers; RouterOS serves a particular market, and its developers are working within those constraints. The intent here, rather, is to provide a mapping between what people expect of a fully-featured container engine and what you get in RouterOS. Where it makes sense, I try to provide workarounds.

<font color=red>This document is a **Work in Progress**.</font>


# Top-Level Commands

For lack of any better organization principle, I've chosen to structure this document along the lines of the `docker` CLI, using their command hierarchy, in alphabetical order at each level. I skip over short aliases like `docker rmi` for `docker image rm` in order to cover things only once.