Version-specific features

Earthly makes use of feature flags to release new and experimental features. Some features must be explicitly enabled to use them.

Important

Avoid using feature flags for critical workflows. You should only use feature flags for testing new experimental features. By using feature flags you are opting out of forwards/backwards semver compatibility guarantees. This means that running the same script in a different environment, with a different version of Earthly may result in a different behavior (i.e. it'll work on your machine, but may break the build for your colleagues or for the CI).

Earthly uses semantic versioning; once a new feature has reached stability, a new VERSION release will include the feature enabled by default.

Difference between the Earthly binary version and the Earthfile version

Earthly binary versions and Earthfile versions (declared via VERSION) follow the same minor versioning milestones, but are not the same.

The Earthly binary is able to run some older Earthfiles, but newer Earthfiles are not able to run on older Earthly binaries. The table below shows the compatibility matrix:

Earthly binary version	Supported Earthfile VERSIONs
0.8.x	VERSION 0.6, VERSION 0.7, VERSION 0.8
0.7.x	VERSION 0.5, VERSION 0.6, VERSION 0.7
0.6.x	No version specified (0.5 implied), VERSION 0.5, VERSION 0.6
0.5.x	No version specified (0.5 implied), VERSION 0.5
<0.5.x	VERSION not supported

Upgrading to a newer version

In order to upgrade to VERSION 0.8 safely, follow these steps:

1. If you are still using VERSION 0.5, upgrade those Earthfiles to VERSION 0.6 or VERSION 0.7.

2. Upgrade your Earthly binary to 0.8 in CI and across your team. The Earthly 0.8 binary can run both VERSION 0.6 and VERSION 0.7 Earthfiles.

3. Once everyone is using the Earthly 0.8 binary, upgrade your Earthfiles one by one to VERSION 0.8. It is ok to have a mix of VERSION 0.6, VERSION 0.7 and VERSION 0.8 Earthfiles in the same project. Earthly handles that gracefully.

When upgrading between VERSIONs, keep in mind that you will encounter backwards-incompatible changes. Check out the change log of each version for more information.

• 0.8

• 0.7

• 0.6

• 0.5

Specifying Version and features

Each Earthfile should list the current earthly version it depends on using the VERSION command. The VERSION command was first introduced under 0.5 and is required as of 0.7.

VERSION [<flags>...] <version-number>

Feature flags

Feature flag	Status	Description
--use-registry-for-with-docker	0.5	Makes use of the embedded BuildKit Docker registry (instead of tar files) for WITH DOCKER loads and pulls
--use-copy-include-patterns	0.6	Speeds up COPY transfers
--referenced-save-only	0.6	Changes the behavior of SAVE commands in a significant way
--for-in	0.6	Enables support for FOR ... IN ... commands
--require-force-for-unsafe-saves	0.6	Requires --force for saving artifacts locally outside the Earthfile's directory
--no-implicit-ignore	0.6	Eliminates implicit .earthlyignore entries, such as Earthfile and .tmp-earthly-out
--earthly-version-arg	0.7	Enables builtin ARGs: EARTHLY_VERSION and EARTHLY_BUILD_SHA
--shell-out-anywhere	0.7	Allows shelling-out in any earthly command (including in the middle of ARG)
--explicit-global	0.7	Base target args must have a --global flag in order to be considered global args
--check-duplicate-images	0.7	Check for duplicate images during output
--use-cache-command	0.7	Allow use of CACHE command in Earthfiles
--use-host-command	0.7	Allow use of HOST command in Earthfiles
--use-copy-link	0.7	Use the equivalent of COPY --link for all copy-like operations
--new-platform	0.7	Enable new platform behavior
--no-tar-build-output	0.7	Do not print output when creating a tarball to load into WITH DOCKER
--use-no-manifest-list	0.7	Enable the SAVE IMAGE --no-manifest-list option
--use-chmod	0.7	Enable the COPY --chmod option
--earthly-locally-arg	0.7	Enable the EARTHLY_LOCALLY arg
--use-project-secrets	0.7	Enable project-based secret resolution
--use-pipelines	0.7	Enable the PIPELINE and TRIGGER commands
--earthly-git-author-args	0.7	Enable the EARTHLY_GIT_AUTHOR and EARTHLY_GIT_CO_AUTHORS args
--wait-block	0.7	Enable the WAIT / END block commands
--no-network	0.8	Allow the use of RUN --network=none commands
--arg-scope-and-set	0.8	Enable the LET / SET commands and nested ARG scoping
--use-docker-ignore	0.8	Enable the use of .dockerignore files in FROM DOCKERFILE targets
--pass-args	0.8	Enable the optional --pass-args flag for the BUILD, FROM, COPY, WITH DOCKER --load commands
--global-cache	0.8	Enable global caches (shared across different Earthfiles), for cache mounts and CACHE commands having an ID
--cache-persist-option	0.8	Adds CACHE --persist option to persist cache content in images, Changes default CACHE behaviour to not persist
--use-function-keyword	0.8	Enable using FUNCTION instead of COMMAND when declaring a function
--use-visited-upfront-hash-collection	0.8	Switches to a newer target parallelization algorithm
--no-use-registry-for-with-docker	Experimental	Disable use-registry-for-with-docker
--try	Experimental	Enable the TRY / FINALLY / END block commands
--earthly-ci-runner-arg	Experimental	Enable the EARTHLY_CI_RUNNER builtin ARG
--wildcard-builds	Experimental	Alow for the expansion of wildcard (glob) paths for BUILD commands
--build-auto-skip	Experimental	Allow for --auto-skip to be used on individual BUILD commands
--allow-privileged-from-dockerfile	Experimental	Allow the use of the --allow-privileged flag in the FROM DOCKERFILE command
--run-with-aws	Experimental	Make AWS credentials in the environment or ~/.aws available to RUN commands
--wildcard-copy	Experimental	Alow for the expansion of wildcard (glob) paths for COPY commands
--raw-output	Experimental	Enable --raw-output for RUN output.

Note that the features flags are disabled by default in Earthly versions lower than the version listed in the "status" column above.

--use-copy-include-patterns

Speeds up COPY transfers.

When enabled, Earthly will only send the files listed for the specific COPY command. Without this feature, Earthly sends the entire directory of files excluding files listed in the .earthlyignore file.

--referenced-save-only

Changes the behavior of SAVE commands in a significant way

When enabled, Earthly will output artifacts resulting from SAVE ARTIFACT ... AS LOCAL ... and images resulting from SAVE IMAGE and also execute RUN --push commands only if they are connected to the main target through a chain of BUILD commands.

For example, chains like these will produce outputs (and possibly push, if enabled):

• main target -> SAVE

• main target -> BUILD -> SAVE

• main target -> BUILD -> BUILD -> SAVE

• main target -> BUILD -> BUILD -> BUILD -> SAVE

While chains like these will NOT produce outputs nor would they push:

• main target -> FROM -> SAVE

• main target -> COPY -> SAVE

• main target -> FROM -> BUILD -> SAVE

• main target -> BUILD -> FROM -> SAVE

• main target -> BUILD -> BUILD -> COPY -> SAVE

This works the same regardless of whether the targets in the chain are remote or local.

When this feature is disabled, Earthly will output artifacts and images regardless of whether they are connected to the main target through a chain of BUILD commands, however the outputs will be subject to the following rules:

• All SAVE ARTIFACT ... AS LOCAL ..., with local Earthfiles will be output

• SAVE ARTIFACT ... AS LOCAL ... produced in remote targets will not be output

• All images with tag names (both local and remote Earthfiles) will be output

• No image will be pushed or RUN --push command will be executed if the target is remote

--for-in

Enables support for FOR ... IN ... commands

When enabled, Earthly will allow the use of FOR ... IN ... commands.