diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index af107edb..17a347fe 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 FROM debian:buster-slim
 
-#add the pi user
-RUN useradd -ms /bin/bash pi 
-WORKDIR /home/pi/pialert
+ARG dir="/home/pi/pialert"
 
 #Update and reduce image size
 RUN apt-get update \
@@ -14,23 +12,24 @@ RUN apt-get update \
     && apt-get autoremove \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
+
 # Lighttpd & PHP
 RUN mv /var/www/html/index.lighttpd.html /var/www/html/index.lighttpd.html.old \
-    && ln -s ./install/index.html /var/www/html/index.html \
+    && ln -s $dir/install/index.html /var/www/html/index.html \
     && lighttpd-enable-mod fastcgi-php 
 
-COPY . .
+COPY . $dir
 
 # delete .git/ files and the tar/ realese directory to make the image smaller
-#RUN rm -r ./.git \
-RUN rm -r ./tar 
+#RUN rm -r $dir/.git \
+RUN rm -r $dir/tar 
 
 # Pi.Alert   
-RUN ln -s ./front /var/www/html/pialert  \
-    && python ./back/pialert.py update_vendors \    
-    && (crontab -l 2>/dev/null; cat ./install/pialert.cron) | crontab - \
-    && chgrp -R www-data ./db \
-    && chmod -R 770 ./db \
+RUN ln -s $dir/front /var/www/html/pialert  \
+    && python $dir/back/pialert.py update_vendors \    
+    && (crontab -l 2>/dev/null; cat $dir/install/pialert.cron) | crontab - \
+    && chgrp -R www-data $dir/db \
+    && chmod -R 770 $dir/db \
     # changing the default port number 80 to something random, here 20211
     && sed -ie 's/= 80/= 20211/g' /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf \
     && service lighttpd restart 
@@ -39,6 +38,6 @@ RUN ln -s ./front /var/www/html/pialert  \
 EXPOSE 20211
 
 # Set up startup script to run two commands, cron and the lighttpd server
-RUN chmod +x ./dockerfiles/start.sh
+RUN chmod +x $dir/dockerfiles/start.sh
 
 CMD ["/home/pi/pialert/dockerfiles/start.sh"]