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

Synopsis:

• 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 parenthesis, 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.

--installation-name <name>

Also available as an env var setting: EARTHLY_INSTALLATION_NAME=<name>.

Overrides the Earthly installation name. The installation name is used for the Buildkit Daemon name, the cache volume name, the configuration directory (~/.<installation-name>) and for the ports used by Buildkit. Using multiple installation names on the same system allows Earthly to run as multiple isolated instances, each with its own configuration, cache and daemon. Defaults to earthly.

--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 remote 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 remote 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 remote 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 remote 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://[e-mail]: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://[e-mail]: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 [<public-key>]

Description

Authorize a new public key to login to the current Earthly account. If key is omitted, an interactive prompt is displayed to select a public key to add.

earthly account remove-key

Synopsis

• earthly account remove-key <public-key>

Description

Removes an authorized public 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>] <token-name>

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 (overriding 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.