The earthly command

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The earthly command
earthly
Synopsis
Target form
earthly [options...] <target-ref> [build-args...]
Artifact form
earthly [options...] --artifact|-a <target-ref>/<artifact-path> [<dest-path>]
earthly [options...] --artifact|-a (<target-ref>/<artifact-path> [build-args...]) [<dest-path>]
Image form
earthly [options...] --image <target-ref> [build-args...]
Description
The command executes a build referenced by <target-ref> (target form and image form) or <artifact-ref> (artifact form). In the target form, the referenced target and its dependencies are built. In the artifact form, the referenced artifact and its dependencies are built, but only the specified artifact is output. The output path of the artifact can be optionally overridden by <dest-path>. In the image form, the image produced by the referenced target and its dependencies are built, but only the specified image is output.
If a BuildKit daemon has not already been started, and the option --buildkit-host is not specified, this command also starts up a container named earthly-buildkitd to act as a build daemon.
The execution has four phases:
Init
Build
Push (optional - disabled by default)
Local output (optional - enabled by default)
During the init phase the configuration is interpreted and the BuildKit daemon is started (if applicable). During the build phase, the referenced target and all its direct or indirect dependencies are executed. During the push phase, when enabled, Earthly performs image pushes and it also runs RUN --push commands. During the local output phase, all applicable artifacts with an AS LOCAL specification are written to the specified output location, and all applicable docker images are loaded onto the host's docker daemon.
If the build phase does not succeed, no output is produced and no push instruction is executed. In this case, the command exits with a non-zero exit code.
Target and Artifact Reference
The <target-ref> can reference both local and remote targets.
Local Reference
+<target-name> will reference a target in the local Earthfile in the current directory.
<local-path>+<target-name> will reference a local Earthfile in a different directory as specified by <local-path>, which must start with ./, ../, or /.
Remote Reference
<gitvendor>/<namespace>/<project>/path/in/project[:some-tag]+<target-name> will access a remote git repository.
Artifact Reference
The <artifact-ref> can reference artifacts built by targets. <target-ref>/<artifact-path> will reference a build target's artifact.
Examples
See the Target, artifact, and image referencing guide for more details and examples.
Build args
Synposis:
Target form earthly <target-ref> [--<build-arg-key>=<build-arg-value>...]
Artifact form earthly --artifact (<target-ref>/<artifact-path> [--<build-arg-key>=<build-arg-value>...]) <dest-path>
Image form earthly --image <target-ref> [--<build-arg-key>=<build-arg-value>...]
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_BUILD_ARGS="<build-arg-key>=<build-arg-value>,<build-arg-key>=<build-arg-value>,...".
Build arg overrides may be specified as part of the Earthly command. The value of the build arg <build-arg-key> is set to <build-arg-value>.
In the target and image forms the build args are passed after the target reference. For example earthly +some-target --NAME=john --SPECIES=human. In the artifact form, the build args are passed immediately after the artifact reference, however they are surrounded by paranthesis, similar to a COPY command. For example earthly --artifact (+some-target/some-artifact --NAME=john --SPECIES=human) ./dest/path/.
The build arg overrides only apply to the target being called directly and any other target referenced as part of the same Earthfile. Build arg overrides, will not apply to targets referenced from other directories or other repositories.
For more information about build args see the ARG Earthfile command.
Environment Variables and .env File
As specified under the options section, all flag options have an environment variable equivalent, which can be used as an alternative.
Furthermore, additional environment variables are also read from a file named .env, if one exists in the current directory. The syntax of the .env file is of the form
<NAME_OF_ENV_VAR>=<value>
...
as one variable per line, without any surrounding quotes. If quotes are included, they will become part of the value. Lines beginning with # are treated as comments. Blank lines are allowed. Here is a simple example:
# Settings
EARTHLY_ALLOW_PRIVILEGED=true
MY_SETTING=a setting which contains spaces
​
# Secrets
MY_SECRET=MmQ1MjFlY2UtYzhlNi00YjJkLWI5YTMtNjIzNzJmYjcwOTJk
ANOTHER_SECRET=MjA5YjU2ZTItYmIxOS00MDQ3LWFlNzYtNmQ5NGEyZDFlYTQx
Note
The directory used for loading the .env file is the directory where earthly is called from and not necessarily the directory where the Earthfile is located in.
The additional environment variables specified in the .env file are loaded by earthly in three distinct ways:
Setting options for earthly itself - the settings are loaded if they match the environment variable equivalent of an earthly option.
Build args - the settings are passed on to the build and are used to override any ARG declaration.
Secrets - the settings are passed on to the build to be referenced via the RUN --secret option.
Important
The .env file is meant for settings which are specific to the local environment the build executes in. These settings may cause inconsistencies in the way the build executes on different systems, leading to builds that are difficult to reproduce. Keep the contents of .env files to a minimum to avoid such issues.
Global Options
--config <path>
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_CONFIG=<path>.
Overrides the earthly configuration file, defaults to ~/.earthly/config.yml.
--ssh-auth-sock <path-to-sock>
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_SSH_AUTH_SOCK=<path-to-sock>.
Sets the path to the SSH agent sock, which can be used for SSH authentication. SSH authentication is used by Earthly in order to perform git clone's underneath.
On Linux systems, this setting defaults to the value of the env var $SSH_AUTH_SOCK. On most systems, the env var SSH_AUTH_SOCK env var is already set if an SSH agent is running.
On Mac systems, this setting defaults to /run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock to match recommendation in the official Docker documentation.
For more information see the Authentication page.
--auth-token <value>
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_TOKEN=<value>.
Force Earthly account login to authenticate with supplied token.
--verbose
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_VERBOSE=1.
Enables verbose logging.
--git-username <git-user> (deprecated)
Also available as an env var setting: GIT_USERNAME=<git-user>.
This option is now deprecated. Please use the configuration file instead.
--git-password <git-pass> (deprecated)
Also available as an env var setting: GIT_PASSWORD=<git-pass>.
This option is now deprecated. Please use the configuration file instead.
--git-url-instead-of <git-instead-of> (obsolete)
Also used to be available as an env var setting: GIT_URL_INSTEAD_OF=<git-instead-of>.
This option is now obsolete. By default, earthly will automatically switch from ssh to HTTPS when no keys are found or the ssh-agent isn't running. Please use the configuration file to override the default behavior.
Build Options
Build options are specific to executing Earthly builds; they are simply listed in this section for readability, and can be supplied as global options.
--secret|-s <secret-id>[=<value>]
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_SECRETS="<secret-id>=<value>,<secret-id>=<value>,...".
Passes a secret with ID <secret-id> to the build environments. If <value> is not specified, then the value becomes the value of the environment variable with the same name as <secret-id>.
The secret can be referenced within Earthfile recipes as RUN --secret <arbitrary-env-var-name>=+secrets/<secret-id>. For more information see the RUN --secret Earthfile command.
--secret-file <secret-id>=<path>
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_SECRET_FILES="<secret-id>=<path>,<secret-id>=<path>,...".
Loads the contents of a file located at <path> into a secret with ID <secret-id> for use within the build environments.
The secret can be referenced within Earthfile recipes as RUN --secret <arbitrary-env-var-name>=+secrets/<secret-id>. For more information see the RUN --secret Earthfile command.
--push
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_PUSH=true.
Instructs Earthly to push any docker images declared with the --push flag to remote docker registries and to run any RUN --push commands. For more information see the SAVE IMAGE Earthfile command and the RUN --push Earthfile command.
Pushing only happens during the output phase, and only if the build has succeeded.
--no-output
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_NO_OUTPUT=true.
Instructs Earthly not to output any images or artifacts. This option cannot be used with the artifact form or the image form.
--output
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_OUTPUT=true.
Allow artifacts or images to be output, even when running under --ci mode.
--no-cache
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_NO_CACHE=true.
Instructs Earthly to ignore any cache when building. It does, however, continue to store new cache formed as part of the build (to be possibly used on future invocations).
--allow-privileged|-P
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_ALLOW_PRIVILEGED=true.
Permits the build to use the --privileged flag in RUN commands. For more information see the RUN --privileged command.
--use-inline-cache
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_USE_INLINE_CACHE=true
Enables use of inline cache, if available. Any SAVE IMAGE --push command is used to inform the system of possible inline cache sources. For more information see the shared caching guide.
--save-inline-cache
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_SAVE_INLINE_CACHE=true
Enables embedding inline cache in any pushed images. This cache can be used on other systems, if enabled via --use-inline-cache. For more information see the shared caching guide.
--remote-cache <image-tag>
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_REMOTE_CACHE=<image-tag>
Enables use of explicit cache. The provided <image-tag> is used for storing and retrieving the cache to/from a Docker registry. Storing explicit cache is only enabled if the option --push is also passed in. For more information see the shared caching guide.
--max-remote-cache
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_MAX_REMOTE_CACHE=true
Enables storing all intermediate layers as part of the explicit cache. Note that this setting is rarely effective due to the excessive upload overhead. For more information see the shared caching guide.
--ci
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_CI=true
In target mode, this option is an alias for
--use-inline-cache --save-inline-cache --no-output --strict
In artifact and image modes , this option is an alias for
--use-inline-cache --save-inline-cache
--platform <platform>
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_PLATFORMS=<platform>.
Sets the platform to build for.
Note
It is not yet possible to specify multiple platforms through this flag. You may, however, use a wrapping target and a BUILD command in your Earthfile:
build-all-platforms:
  BUILD --platform=linux/amd64 --platform=linux/arm/v7 +build
​
build:
  ...
--build-arg <key>[=<value>] (deprecated)
This option has been deprecated in favor of the new build arg syntax earthly <target-ref> --<key>=<value>.
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_BUILD_ARGS="<key>=<value>,<key>=<value>,...".
Overrides the value of the build arg <key>. If <value> is not specified, then the value becomes the value of the environment variable with the same name as <key>. For more information see the ARG Earthfile command.
--interactive|-i
Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_INTERACTIVE=true.
Enable interactive debugging mode. By default when a RUN command fails, earthly will display the error and exit. If the interactive mode is enabled and an error occurs, an interactive shell is presented which can be used for investigating the error interactively. Due to technical limitations, only a single interactive shell can be used on the system at any given time.
--strict
Disallow usage of features that may create unrepeatable builds.
Log formatting options
These options can only be set via environment variables, and have no command line equivalent.
Variable
Usage
NO_COLOR
NO_COLOR=1 disables the use of color.
FORCE_COLOR
FORCE_COLOR=1 forces the use of color.
EARTHLY_TARGET_PADDING
EARTHLY_TARGET_PADDING=n will set the column to the width of n characters. If a name is longer than n, its path will be truncated and remaining extra length will cause the column to go ragged.
EARTHLY_FULL_TARGET
EARTHLY_FULL_TARGET=1 will always print the full target name, and leave the target name column ragged.
earthly prune
Synopsis
Standard form
earthly [options] prune [--all|-a]
Reset form
earthly [options] prune --reset
Description
The command earthly prune eliminates Earthly cache. In the standard form it issues a prune command to the BuildKit daemon. In the reset form it restarts the BuildKit daemon, instructing it to completely delete the cache directory on startup, thus forcing it to start from scratch.
Options
--all|-a
Instructs earthly to issue a "prune all" command to the BuildKit daemon.
--reset
Restarts the BuildKit daemon and completely resets the cache directory.
earthly config
Synopsis
earthly [options] config [key] [value]
Description
Manipulates values in ~/.earthly/config.yml. It does its best to preserve existing formatting and comments. [value] must be a valid YAML literal for the given [key].
Options
--help
Prints help text, along with some examples.
[key] --help
Prints help for the specific key, including what it is used for and what kind of value it needs to be.
Examples
Set your cache size:
config global.cache_size_mb 1234
Set additional BuildKit args, using a YAML array:
config global.buildkit_additional_args ['userns', '--host']
Set a key containing a period:
config git."example.com".password hunter2
Set up a whole custom git repository for a server called example.com, using a single-line YAML literal:
which stores git repos under /var/git/repos/name-of-repo.git
allows access over ssh
using port 2222
sets the username to git
is recognized to earthly as example.com/name-of-repo
config git "{example: {pattern: 'example.com/([^/]+)', substitute: 'ssh://[email protected]:2222/var/git/repos/\$1.git', auth: ssh, user: git}}"
The above command yields the following config file:
git:
    example:
        pattern: example.com/([^/]+)
        substitute: ssh://[email protected]:2222/var/git/repos/$1.git
        auth: ssh
        user: git
earthly account
Contains sub-commands for registering and administration an Earthly account.
earthly account register
Synopsis
earthly account register --email <email>
earthly account register --email <email> --token <email-verification-token> [--password <password>] [--public-key <public-key>] [--accept-terms-conditions-privacy]
Description
Register for an Earthly account. Registration is done in two steps: first run the register command with only the --email argument, this will then send an email to the supplied email address with a registration token (which is used to verify your email address), second re-run the register command with both the --email and --token arguments to complete the registration process.
earthly account login
Synopsis
earthly [options] account login
earthly [options] account login --email <email>
earthly [options] account login --email <email> --password <password>
earthly [options] account login --token <token>
Description
Login to an existing Earthly account. If no email or token is given, earthly will attempt to login using registered public keys.
earthly account logout
Synopsis
earthly [options] account logout
Description
Removes cached login information from ~/.earthly/auth.token.
earthly account list-keys
Synopsis
earthly account list-keys
Description
Lists all public keys that are authorized to login to the current Earthly account.
earthly account add-key
Synopsis
earthly account add-key [<key>]
Description
Authorize a new ssh-rsa public key to login to the current Earthly account. If key is omitted, an interactive prompt is displayed to select a key to add.
earthly account remove-key
Synopsis
earthly account remove-key <key>
Description
Removes an authorized ssh-rsa key from accessing the current Earthly account.
earthly account list-tokens
Synopsis
earthly account list-tokens
Description
List account tokens associated with Earthly account. A token is useful for environments where the ssh-agent is not accessible (e.g. a CI system).
earthly account create-token
Synopsis
earthly account create-token [--write] [--expiry <expiry>]
Description
Creates a new authentication token. A read-only token is created by default, If the --write flag is specified the token will have read+write access. The token will expire in 1 year from creation date unless a different date is supplied via the --expiry option.
It is then possible to export EARTHLY_TOKEN=..., which will force earthly to use this token for all authentication (overridding any other currently-logged in sessions).
earthly account remove-token
Synopsis
earthly account remove-token <token>
Description
Removes a token from the current Earthly account.
earthly org
Contains sub-commands for creating and managing Earthly organizations.
earthly org create
Synopsis
earthly org create <org-name>
Description
Create a new organization, which can be used to share secrets between different user accounts.
earthly org list
Synopsis
earthly org list
Description
List all organizations the current account is a member, or administrator of.
earthly org list-permissions
Synopsis
earthly org list-permissions <org-name>
Description
List all accounts and the paths they have permission to access under a particular organization.
earthly org invite
Synopsis
earthly org invite [--write] <org-path> <email> [<email>, ...]
Description
Invites a user into an organization; <org-path> can either be a top-level org access by granting permission on /<org-name>/, or finer-grained access can be granted to a subpath e.g. /<org-name>/path/to/share/. By default users are granted read-only access unless the --write flag is given.
earthly org revoke
Synopsis
earthly org revoke <org-path> <email> [<email>, ...]
Description
Revokes a previously invited user from an organization.
earthly secrets
Contains sub-commands for creating and managing Earthly secrets.
earthly secrets set
Synopsis
earthly secrets set <path> <value>
earthly secrets set --file <local-path> <path>
Description
Stores a secret in the secrets store
earthly secrets get
Synopsis
earthly secrets get [-n] <path>
Description
Retrieve a secret from the secrets store. If -n is given, no newline is printed after the contents of the secret.
earthly secrets ls
Synopsis
earthly secrets ls [<path>]
Description
List secrets the current account has access to.
earthly secrets rm
Synopsis
earthly secrets rm <path>
Description
Removes a secret from the secrets store.
earthly bootstrap
Synopsis
earthly bootstrap
Description
Performs initialization tasks needed for earthly to function correctly. This command can be re-run to fix broken setups. It is recommended to run this with sudo.
Options
--no-buildkit
Skips setting up the BuildKit container during bootstrapping. If needed, it will also be performed when a build is ran.
--with-autocomplete
Installs shell autocompletions during bootstrap. Requires sudo to install them correctly.
earthly --help
Synopsis
earthly --help
earthly <command> --help
Description
Prints help information about earthly.
earthly --version
Synopsis
earthly --version
Description
Prints version information about earthly.
Version-specific features
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Configuration reference
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earthly
earthly prune
earthly config
earthly account
earthly org
earthly secrets
earthly bootstrap
earthly --help
earthly --version