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earthly/earthly

This image contains earthly, buildkit, and some extra configuration to enable the two to work together. All that's missing is your source code! This image is mainly intended for use in containerized CI scenarios, or where maintaining a persistent installation of earthly isn't possible.

Tags

Currently, the latest tag is v0.7.23. For other available tags, please check out https://hub.docker.com/r/earthly/earthly/tags

Quickstart

Want to just get started? Here are a couple sample docker run commands that cover the most common use-cases:

Simple Usage with Docker Socket

This example shows how to use the Earthly container in conjunction with a Docker socket that Earthly can use to start up the Buildkit daemon.

docker run -t -v $(pwd):/workspace -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -e NO_BUILDKIT=1 earthly/earthly:v0.7.23 +for-linux

Here's a quick breakdown:

  • -t tells Docker to emulate a TTY. This makes the earthly log output colorized.

  • -v $(pwd):/workspace mounts the source code into the conventional location within the docker container. Earthly is executed from this directory when starting the container. Any artifacts saved within this folder remain on your local machine.

  • -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock mounts the Docker socket such that Earthly can start Buildkit as a Docker container in the host's Docker.

  • -e NO_BUILDKIT=1 tells the Earthly container not to start en embedded buildkit. A Buildkit daemon will instead be started via the Docker socket provided.

  • +for-linux is the target to be invoked. All arguments specified after the image tag will be passed to earthly.

Simple Usage with Embedded Buildkit

This example shows how the Earthly image can start a Buildkit daemon within the same container. A Docker socket is not needed in this case, however the container will need to be run with the --privileged flag.

docker run --privileged -t -v $(pwd):/workspace -v earthly-tmp:/tmp/earthly:rw earthly/earthly:v0.7.23 +for-linux

Here's a quick breakdown:

  • --privileged is required when you are using the internal, embedded buildkit. This is because buildkit currently requires it for OverlayFS support and for network configuration.

  • -t tells Docker to emulate a TTY. This makes the earthly log output colorized.

  • -v $(pwd):/workspace mounts the source code into the conventional location within the docker container. Earthly is executed from this directory when starting the container. Any artifacts saved within this folder remain on your local machine.

  • -v earthly-tmp:/tmp/earthly:rw mounts (and creates, if necessary) the earthly-tmp Docker volume into the containers /tmp/earthly. This is used as a temporary/working directory for buildkitd during builds.

  • +for-linux is the target to be invoked. All arguments specified after the image tag will be passed to earthly.

Usage with Satellites and No Local Code

This example utilizes an Earthly Satellite to perform builds. The code to be built is downloaded directly from GitHub.

docker run -t -e NO_BUILDKIT=1 -e EARTHLY_TOKEN=<my-token> earthly/earthly:v0.7.23 --ci --org <my-org> --sat <my-sat> github.com/earthly/earthly+for-linux

Here's what this does:

  • -e EARTHLY_TOKEN=<my-token> passes along an Earthly token such that Earthly can access satellites. This token can be created via earthly account create-token.

  • --org <my-org> specifies the organization that the satellite belongs to.

  • --sat <my-sat> specifies the satellite to use.

  • github.com/earthly/earthly+for-linux specifies the target to build. This target is located on GitHub, and will be pulled from the Satellite.

Usage for non-build commands

This example shows how to use the Earthly container to run non-build commands. This is useful for running commands like earthly account, or earthly secret.

docker run -t -e NO_BUILDKIT=1 -e EARTHLY_TOKEN=<my-token> earthly/earthly:v0.7.23 account list-tokens
docker run -t -e NO_BUILDKIT=1 -e EARTHLY_TOKEN=<my-token> earthly/earthly:v0.7.23 secret get foo

Using This Image

Requirements

There are a couple requirements this image expects you to follow when using it. These requirements streamline usage of the image and save configuration effort.

Privileged Mode

If you are using the embedded buildkitd, then this image needs to be run as a privileged container. This is because buildkitd needs appropriate access to use overlayfs.

/tmp/earthly

Because this folder sees a lot of traffic, its important that it remains fast. We strongly recommend using a Docker volume for mounting /tmp/earthly. If you do not, buildkitd can consume excessive disk space, operate very slowly, or it might not function correctly.

In some environments, not mounting /tmp/earthly as a Docker volume results in the following error:

--> WITH DOCKER RUN --privileged ...
...
rm: can't remove '/var/earthly/dind/...': Resource busy

Source Mounting

Because earthly is running inside a container, it does not have access to your source code unless you grant it. This image expects to find a valid Earthfile in the working directory, which is set by default to /workspace.

DOCKER_HOST

This image does include a functional Docker CLI, but does not include a full Docker daemon. If your Earthfile requires a Docker daemon of any sort, you will need to provide it through this environment variable.

If your daemon is on the same host as this container, you can also volume mount your hosts docker daemon using -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock. Note that this will cause earthly to use your hosts Docker daemon, and could lead to name conflicts if multiple copies of this image are run on the same host.

-t

This is the easiest way to ensure you get the nice, colorized output from earthly. Alternatively, you could provide the FORCE_COLOR environment variable.

Supported Environment Variables

Variable Name
Default Values
Description

GLOBAL_CONFIG

Any valid YAML for the top-level global key in config.yml. Example: {disable_analytics: true, local_registry_host: 'tcp://127.0.0.1:8371'}

GIT_CONFIG

Any valid YAML for the top-level git key in config.yml. Example: {example: {pattern: 'example.com/([^/]+)', substitute: 'ssh://git@example.com:2222/var/git/repos/$1.git', auth: ssh}}

NO_BUILDKIT

Disables the embedded Buildkit daemon.

DOCKER_HOST

/var/run/docker.sock

From Docker's CLI.

BUILDKIT_HOST

tcp://<hostname>:8372

The address of your BuildKit host. Use this when you have a remote buildkitd you would like to connect to.

EARTHLY_ADDITIONAL_BUILDKIT_CONFIG

Additional buildkitd config to append to the generated configuration file.

BUILDKIT_TCP_TRANSPORT_ENABLED

Required to be set to true when using an external buildkitd via BUILDKIT_HOST. true when using the embedded buildkitd.

BUILDKIT_TLS_ENABLED

Required when using an external buildkitd via BUILDKITD_HOST, and the external buildkitd requires mTLS. You will also need to mount certificates into the right place (/etc/.earthly/certs).

CNI_MTU

MTU of first default interface

Set this when we autodetect the MTU incorrectly. The device used for autodetection can be shown by the command ip route show | grep default | cut -d' ' -f5 | head -n 1

EARTHLY_RESET_TMP_DIR

false

Cleans out /tmp/earthly before running, if set to true. Useful when you host-mount an temporary directory across runs.

NETWORK_MODE

cni

Specifies the networking mode of buildkitd. Default uses a CNI bridge network, configured with the CNI_MTU.

CACHE_SIZE_MB

0

How big should the buildkitd cache be allowed to get, in MiB? A value of 0 sets the cache size to "adaptive", causing BuildKit to detect the available size of the system and choose a limit automatically.

GIT_URL_INSTEAD_OF

Configure git config --global url.<url>.insteadOf rules to be used by buildkitd.

IP_TABLES

Override which binary (iptables_nft or iptables_legacy) is used for configuring ip_tables. Only set this if autodetection fails for your platform.

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