# Please add -slim base OS images

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/please-add-slim-base-os-images/6863>\
**Category:** Product support\
**Tags:** baseimage\
**Created:** [April 30, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/please-add-slim-base-os-images/6863 "2019-04-30T14:56:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jgentes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/jgentes/32/1595_2.png) [@jgentes](https://forums.balena.io/u/jgentes)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/please-add-slim-base-os-images/6863/1 "2019-04-30T14:56:49Z")

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Since the transition to `balenalib`, the -slim variants of base images have disappeared. These are extremely important for IOT devices as they significantly reduce the size of containers.

In particular, I’d like to use:

FROM balenalib/%%BALENA\_MACHINE\_NAME%%-debian:stretch-slim

I did notice that we now have `-build` and `-run` but I’m not sure if `-run` is the same as `-slim`.

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**Author:** ![robertgzr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/robertgzr/32/1387_2.png) [@robertgzr](https://forums.balena.io/u/robertgzr)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/please-add-slim-base-os-images/6863/3 "2019-04-30T15:31:41Z")

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Hi @jgentes, yes you are right. `run` is the new `slim` 🙂

From the [`balenalib` announcement](https://www.balena.io/blog/new-year-new-balena-base-images/):

> For each combination of distro and stack we have two variants called `run` and `build` . The build variant is much heavier as it has a number of tools preinstalled to help with building source code. You can see an example of the tools that are included in the Debian Stretch variant [here](https://github.com/balena-io-library/base-images/blob/master/balena-base-images/armv7hf/debian/stretch/build/Dockerfile). The `run` variants are stripped down and only include a few useful runtime tools, see an example [here](https://github.com/balena-io-library/base-images/blob/master/balena-base-images/armv7hf/debian/stretch/run/Dockerfile). If no variant is specified, the image defaults to `run`

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**Author:** ![jgentes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/jgentes/32/1595_2.png) [@jgentes](https://forums.balena.io/u/jgentes)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/please-add-slim-base-os-images/6863/5 "2019-05-01T15:11:18Z")

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👌