Question: I'm hoping to use docker to set up some bioinformatic analysis.

I have found two docker images that I would like to use:

1. jupyter/datascience-notebook
2. bioconductor/devel\_base

I have been successful in running each of these images independently, however I don't know how to merge them together.

Is merging two docker containers possible? Or do you start with one, and then manually install the features of the other?

Answer: 
If there are specific files or directories that you want to cherry-pick from the one of the two images, you can create a new Dockerfile that builds `FROM` one of them and copy over specific paths from the other using [COPY's --from option](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#copy). For example:

```
FROM bioconductor/devel_base
COPY --from=jupyter/datascience-notebook /path/to/something-you-want /path

```

However, a quick investigation of those images shows that in this specific case there isn't a lot that can easily be cherry picked.

Alternatively, you can just look at the original Dockerfiles and combine them yourself:

* <https://github.com/jupyter/docker-stacks/blob/master/base-notebook/Dockerfile>
* <https://github.com/Bioconductor/bioc_docker/blob/master/out/devel_base/Dockerfile>

Fortunately they are both based one APT-based distros: Ubuntu and Debian. So most of the apt-get install commands should work fine if you pick either base image.
You start with one then manually install the features of the other one. Merging would be far to complex, and too many unknowns.