Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/containers/build

another build tool for container images (archived, see https://github.com/rkt/rkt/issues/4024)
https://github.com/containers/build

Last synced: 3 months ago
JSON representation

another build tool for container images (archived, see https://github.com/rkt/rkt/issues/4024)

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
## _This project is currently unmaintained_



acbuild was originally created to be the tool used to build AppC images. Due to

the introduction of the [Open Container

Initiative](https://www.opencontainers.org/), development on AppC was

[officially suspended](https://github.com/appc/spec#-disclaimer-) in November,

2016. While acbuild has the ability to also produce OCI images, it is not the

only tool capable of doing so. In its current state, acbuild is not currently

maintained. If you wish to become a maintainer of acbuild, feel free to start

contributing and ask for direct commit access via the issue/PR tracker.



For those looking for an OCI image manipulation tool that is actively

maintained, [umoci](https://github.com/openSUSE/umoci) or

[buildah](https://github.com/projectatomic/buildah) might be able to fill the

role.



# acbuild - another container build tool



acbuild is a command line utility to build and modify container images.



It is intended to provide an image build workflow independent of specific

formats; currently, it can output the following types of container images:

* ACI, the container image format defined in the [App Container (appc) 

 spec](https://github.com/appc/spec).

* OCI, the format defined in the [Open Containers Image Format

  specification](https://github.com/opencontainers/image-spec)



[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcnIDm80y68](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcnIDm80y68)



[![How to use rkt acbuild to construct app container images](http://img.youtube.com/vi/WcnIDm80y68/0.jpg)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcnIDm80y68 "How to use rkt acbuild to construct app container images")



## Rationale



We needed a powerful tool for constructing and manipulating container images

that made it easy to iteratively build containers, both from scratch and atop

existing images. We wanted that tool to integrate well with Unix mechanisms

like the shell and `Makefile`s so it would fit seamlessly into well-known

administrator and developer workflows.



## Installation



### Dependencies



acbuild can only be run on a Linux system, and has only been tested on the

amd64 architecture.



For trying out acbuild on Mac OS X, it's recommended to use Vagrant.

Instructions on how to do this are a little further down in this document.



acbuild requires a handful of commands be available on the system on 

which it's run:



- `cp`

- `modprobe`



Additionally `systemd-nspawn` is required to use the [default

engine](Documentation/subcommands/run.md) for acbuild run. Thus on Ubuntu the `systemd-container` package needs to be installed.



### Prebuilt Binaries



The easiest way to get `acbuild` is to download one of the

[releases](https://github.com/containers/build/releases) from GitHub.



### Build from source



The other way to get `acbuild` is to build it from source. Building from source requires [Go 1.5+](https://golang.org/dl/).



Follow these steps to do so:



1. Grab the source code for `acbuild` by `git clone`ing the source repository:

   ```

   cd ~

   git clone https://github.com/containers/build acbuild

   ```



2. Run the `build` script from the root source repository directory:

   ```

   cd acbuild

   ./build

   ```



   Or, if you want to build in docker (assuming `$PWD` exists and contains

   `acbuild/` on your Docker host):



   ```

   cd acbuild

   ./build-docker

   ```



3. A `bin/` directory will be created that contains the `acbuild` tool. To make

   sure your shell can find this executable, append this directory to your

   environment's `$PATH` variable. You can do this in your `.bashrc` or similar

   file, for example:

   ```

   vi ~/.bashrc

   ```



and put the following lines at the end of the file:

   ```

   export ACBUILD_BIN_DIR=~/acbuild/bin

   export PATH=$PATH:$ACBUILD_BIN_DIR

   ```



### Building acbuild with rkt



If rkt is installed on the system, acbuild can also be built inside of a rkt container with the following command:



```

./build-rkt

```



### Trying out acbuild using Vagrant



For users with Vagrant 1.5.x or greater, there's a provided `Vagrantfile` that

can quickly get you set up with a Linux VM that has both acbuild and rkt. The

following steps will grab acbuild, set up the machine, and ssh into it.



```

git clone https://github.com/containers/build acbuild

cd acbuild

vagrant up

vagrant ssh

```



## Documentation



Documentation about acbuild and many of its commands is available in the

[`Documentation`

directory](https://github.com/containers/build/tree/master/Documentation) in this

repository.



## Examples



Check out the [`examples`

directory](https://github.com/containers/build/tree/master/examples) for some common

applications being packaged into ACIs with `acbuild`.



## Related work



- https://github.com/sgotti/baci

- https://github.com/appc/spec/tree/master/actool - particularly the `build` and

  `patch-manifest` subcommands. `acbuild` may subsume such functionality,

  leaving `actool` as a validator only.

- https://github.com/blablacar/dgr