Targets have the ability to produce output outside of the build environment. You can save files and docker images to your local machine or push them to remote repositories. Targets can also run commands that affect the local environment outside of the build, such as running database migrations, but not all targets produce output. Let's take a look at which commands produce output and how to use them.
Saving Files
We've already seen how the command copies a file or directory from the build environment into the target's artifact environment.
This gives us the ability to copy files between targets, but it does not allow us to save any files to our local machine.
build:
COPY main.go .
RUN go build -o output/example main.go
SAVE ARTIFACT output/example
docker:
# COPY command copies files from the +build target
COPY +build/example .
ENTRYPOINT ["/go-workdir/example"]
SAVE IMAGE go-example:latest
In order to save the file locally , we need to add AS LOCAL to the command.
build:
COPY main.go .
RUN go build -o output/example main.go
SAVE ARTIFACT output/example AS LOCAL local-output/go-example
If we run this example with earthly +build, we'll see a local-output directory show up locally with a go-example file inside of it.
Saving Docker Images
Saving Docker images to your local machine is easy with the SAVE IMAGE command.
build:
COPY main.go .
RUN go build -o output/example main.go
SAVE ARTIFACT output/example
docker:
COPY +build/example .
ENTRYPOINT ["/go-workdir/example"]
SAVE IMAGE go-example:latest
In this example, running earthly +docker will save an image named go-example with the tag latest.
~$ earthly +docker
...
~$ docker image ls
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
go-example latest 08b9f749023d 19 seconds ago 297MB
# or podman
~$ podman image ls
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
go-example latest 08b9f749023d 19 seconds ago 297MB
NOTE
If we run a target as a reference in FROM or COPY, outputs will not be produced. Take this Earthfile for example.
build:
COPY main.go .
RUN go build -o output/example main.go
SAVE ARTIFACT output/example AS LOCAL local-output/go-example
docker:
COPY +build/example .
ENTRYPOINT ["/go-workdir/example"]
SAVE IMAGE go-example:latest
In this case, running earthly +docker will not produce any output. In other words, you will not have a local-output/go-example written locally, but running earthly +build will still produce output as expected.
The exception to this rule is the BUILD command. If you want to use COPY or FROM and still have Earthly create local-output/go-example locally, you'll need to use the BUILD command to do so.
build:
COPY main.go .
RUN go build -o output/example main.go
SAVE ARTIFACT output/example AS LOCAL local-output/go-example
docker:
BUILD +build
COPY +build/example .
ENTRYPOINT ["/go-workdir/example"]
SAVE IMAGE go-example:latest
Running earthly +docker in this case will now output local-output/go-example locally.
The Push Flag
Docker Images
In addition to saving files and images locally, we can also push them to remote repositories.
docker:
COPY +build/example .
ENTRYPOINT ["/go-workdir/example"]
SAVE IMAGE --push go-example:latest
Note that adding the --push flag to SAVE IMAGE is not enough, we'll also need to invoke push when we run earthly. earthly --push +docker.
External Changes
You can also use --push as part of a RUN command to define commands that have an effect external to the build. These kinds of effects are only allowed to take place if the entire build succeeds.
This allows you to push to remote repositories.
release:
RUN --push --secret GITHUB_TOKEN=GH_TOKEN github-release upload
earthly --push +release
But also allows you to do things like run database migrations.
migrate:
FROM +build
RUN --push bundle exec rails db:migrate
earthly --push +migrate
Or apply terraform changes
apply:
RUN --push terraform apply -auto-approve
earthly --push +apply
NOTE
Just like saving files, any command that uses --pushwill only produce output if called directly, earthly --push +target-with-pushor via aBUILD command. Calling a target via FROM or COPY will not invoke --push.
More Examples
JavaScript
mkdir tutorial
cd tutorial
earthly --artifact github.com/earthly/earthly/examples/tutorial/js:main+part2/part2 ./part2
./Earthfile
VERSION 0.7
FROM node:13.10.1-alpine3.11
WORKDIR /js-example
build:
# In JS, there's nothing to build in this simple form.
# The source is also the artifact used in production.
COPY src/index.js .
SAVE ARTIFACT index.js /dist/index.js AS LOCAL ./dist/index.js
docker:
COPY +build/dist dist
ENTRYPOINT ["node", "./dist/index.js"]
SAVE IMAGE js-example:latest
The code of the app might look like this
./src/index.js
console.log("hello world");
Java
mkdir tutorial
cd tutorial
earthly --artifact github.com/earthly/earthly/examples/tutorial/java:main+part2/part2 ./part2
./Earthfile
VERSION 0.7
FROM openjdk:8-jdk-alpine
RUN apk add --update --no-cache gradle
WORKDIR /java-example
build:
COPY build.gradle ./
COPY src src
RUN gradle build
RUN gradle install
SAVE ARTIFACT build/install/java-example/bin /bin AS LOCAL build/bin
SAVE ARTIFACT build/install/java-example/lib /lib AS LOCAL build/lib
docker:
COPY +build/bin bin
COPY +build/lib lib
ENTRYPOINT ["/java-example/bin/java-example"]
SAVE IMAGE java-example:latest
The code of the app might look like this
./src/main/java/hello/HelloWorld.java
package hello;
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("hello world");
}
}
