diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.git/
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
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+++ b/Dockerfile
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+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+
+# Goal: provide a thrift-compiler Docker image
+#
+# further details on docker for thrift is here build/docker/
+#
+# TODO: push to apache/thrift-compiler instead of thrift/thrift-compiler
+
+FROM debian:jessie
+MAINTAINER Apache Thrift <dev@thrift.apache.org>
+
+ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
+
+RUN apt-get update
+RUN apt-get upgrade -y
+
+# minimal dependencies
+RUN apt-get install -y flex bison g++ cmake
+
+ADD . /thrift
+
+RUN mkdir cmake-build && cd cmake-build && cmake -DBUILD_COMPILER=ON -DBUILD_LIBRARIES=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=OFF /thrift && make
+RUN cp /cmake-build/bin/thrift /usr/bin/thrift
+
+# Clean up
+RUN apt-get clean && \
+    rm -rf /var/cache/apt/* && \
+    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
+    rm -rf /tmp/* && \
+    rm -rf /var/tmp/* \
+    rm -rf cmake-build
+
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/thrift"]