This guide walks through using Docker commands in Earthly.
In order to use Docker commands (such as docker run
), Earthly makes available isolated Docker daemons which are started and stopped on-demand. The reason for using isolated instances of Docker daemons is such that no pre-existing Docker state (e.g. images, containers, networks, volumes) can influence the way the build executes. This allows Earthly to achieve high degrees of reproducibility.
Here is a quick example of running a hello-world docker container via docker run
in Earthly:
hello:FROM earthly/dind:alpineWITH DOCKER --pull hello-worldRUN docker run hello-worldEND
Let's break it down.
FROM earthly/dind:alpine
inherits from an Earthly-supported docker-in-docker (dind) image. This is recommended, because WITH DOCKER
requires all the Docker binaries (not just the client) to be present in the build environment.
WITH DOCKER ... END
starts a Docker daemon for the purpose of running Docker commands against it. At the end of the execution, this also terminates the daemon and permanently deletes all of its data (e.g. daemon cached images).
--pull hello-world
pulls the image hello-world
from the Docker Hub. This option could have been replaced with the more traditional docker pull hello-world
. However, the Earthly variant additionally stores the image in the Earthly cache, so that the actual pull is performed only if the image changes. Because the daemon cache is cleared after each run, docker pull
would not achieve the same.
RUN docker run hello-world
executes the docker run
command in the context of the daemon created by WITH DOCKER
.
A typical use of Docker in Earthly is running an image that has been built via Earthly itself. To achieve that, the option WITH DOCKER --load ...=...
can be used. Here is an example:
build:...ENTRYPOINT ...SAVE IMAGE my-image:latest​smoke-test:FROM earthly/dind:alpineWITH DOCKER --load test:latest=+buildRUN docker run test:latestEND
--load test:latest=+build
takes the image produced by the target +build
and loads it into the Docker daemon created by WITH DOCKER
as the image with the tag test:latest
. The tag can then be used to reference this image in other docker commands, such as docker run
.
Notice that the image name produced as output is my-image:latest
. This image name is not available in the WITH DOCKER
environment, however, as it is only used to tag for use outside of Earthly. The name test:latest
is used instead.
It is possible to run docker-compose
via WITH DOCKER
, either explicitly, simply by running the docker-compose
tool, or implicitly, via the --compose
flag. The --compose
flag allows you to specify a Docker compose stack that needs to be brough up before the execution of the RUN
command. For example:
FROM earthly/dind:alpineWITH DOCKER \--compose docker-compose.yml \--service db \--service apiRUN docker run some-integration-test:latestEND
Using the --compose
flag has the added benefit that any images needed by the compose stack will be automatically added to the pull list by Earthly, thus using cache efficiently.
For more information on integration testing and working with service dependencies see our tutorial on integration testing in Earthly.
The current implementation of Docker in Earthly has a number of limitations:
Only one RUN
command is allowed within the WITH DOCKER
clause. The reason for this is that only one cache layer is used for the entire clause. You can, however, chain multiple shell commands together within a single RUN
command. For example:
WITH DOCKERRUN command1 && \command2 && \command3 && \...END
It is recommended that the target containing the WITH DOCKER
clause inherits from a supported Docker-in-Docker (dind) image such as earthly/dind:alpine
or earthly/dind:ubuntu
. If your build requires the use of an alternative environment as part of a test (e.g. to run commands like sbt test
or go test
together with a docker-compose stack), consider placing the test itself in a Docker image, then loading that image via --load
and running the test as a Docker container.
If you do not use an officially supported Docker-in-Docker image, Earthly will attempt to install Docker in whatever image you have chosen. This has the drawback of not being able to use cache efficiently and is not recommended for performance reasons.
To maximize the use of cache, all external images used should be declared via the options --pull
or --compose
. Even though commands such as docker run
automatically pull an image if it is not found locally, it will do so every single time the WITH DOCKER
clause is executed, due to Docker caching not being preserved between runs. Pre-declaring the images ensures that they are properly cached by Earthly to minimize unnecessary redownloads.
docker build
cannot be used to build Dockerfiles. However, the Earthly command FROM DOCKERFILE
can be used instead. See alternative to docker build below.
The state of the Docker daemon within Earthly cannot be inspected on the host (e.g. for debugging purposes). For example, if a docker-compose
stack fails, you cannot execute commands like docker-compose logs
or docker logs
on the host. However, you may use the interactive mode to drop into a shell within the build environment and execute such commands there. For more information, see the debugging guide.
It is currently not possible to mount /var/run/docker.sock
in order to use the host Docker daemon. This goes against Earthly's principles of keeping execution repeatable. Mounting the Docker socket may cause builds to depend on the host Daemon state (e.g. pre-cached images) in ways that may not be obvious or easy to reproduce if the build were executed in another environment.
It is not always necessary to execute docker commands within an Earthly build. Certain operations can be replicated with Earthly constructs.
In certain cases, simple docker run
invocations can be replaced by a simple RUN --entrypoint
. For example, the following:
FROM docker:19.03.13-dindWITH DOCKER --pull hello-worldRUN docker run hello-worldEND
Can be rewritten as
FROM hello-worldRUN --entrypoint
This, of course, has limitations, such as not being able to mount volumes the same way docker run -v ...
could (instead, a COPY
command could be used); or not being able to run multiple containers in parallel. However, when appropriate, it can simplify a build definition.
Running docker build
within Earthly is discouraged, as it has a number of key limitations:
Layer caching does not work. This is because WITH DOCKER
does not preserve Docker cache between runs (other than --pull
).
Once an image is created, it cannot be exported as a build output in a form other than a TAR archive (e.g. it cannot be automatically loaded onto the host Docker daemon).
Instead of executing docker build
, it is advisable to use the Earthly command FROM DOCKERFILE
. For example, the command docker build -t my-image:latest .
can be emulated by:
FROM DOCKERFILE .SAVE IMAGE my-image:latest
Reference for WITH DOCKER
​
​Debugging techniques​