Report Issue Edit

Extending the build-time base image with a build.Dockerfile

Builder images can be kept lean if image extensions are used to dynamically install the needed dependencies for the current application.

Examine vim extension

detect

cat $PWD/samples/extensions/vim/bin/detect

The extension always detects (because its exit code is 0) and provides a dependency called vim by writing to the build plan.

generate

cat $PWD/samples/extensions/vim/bin/generate

The extension generates a build.Dockerfile that installs vim on the builder image.

Configure the hello-extensions buildpack to require vim

Set the BP_REQUIRES build-time environment variable to configure the hello-extensions buildpack to require vim (review the ./bin/detect script to see why this works).

pack build hello-extensions \
  --builder localhost:5000/extensions-builder \
  --env BP_EXT_DEMO=1 \
  --env BP_REQUIRES=vim \
  --network host \
  --path $PWD/samples/apps/java-maven \
  --pull-policy always \
  --verbose

Note that --network host is necessary when publishing to a local registry.

You should see:

...
[detector] ======== Results ========
[detector] pass: samples/vim@0.0.1
[detector] pass: samples/hello-extensions@0.0.1
[detector] Resolving plan... (try #1)
[detector] samples/vim             0.0.1
[detector] samples/hello-extensions 0.0.1
[detector] Running generate for extension samples/vim@0.0.1
...
[extender (build)] Found build Dockerfile for extension 'samples/vim'
[extender (build)] Applying the Dockerfile at /layers/generated/build/samples_vim/Dockerfile...
...
[extender (build)] Running build command
[extender (build)] ---> Hello Extensions Buildpack
[extender (build)] VIM - Vi IMproved 9.0 (2022 Jun 28, compiled May 19 2023 16:28:36)
...
Successfully built image hello-extensions

See the image fail to run

docker run --rm hello-extensions

You should see:

ERROR: failed to launch: path lookup: exec: "curl": executable file not found in $PATH

What happened: our builder uses run image cnbs/sample-base-run:alpine, which does not have curl installed, so our process failed to launch.

Let’s take a look at how the samples/curl extension fixes the error by switching the run image to another image…

Next Step

Report Issue Edit