Building applications by using buildpacks

Set up registry access

Because the output of the build is an image that is stored in a container registry, you must set up access to an image registry for Code Engine. To store an image in Docker Hub, create the registry access by using the ibmcloud ce secret create --format registry command. In the following example, use dockerhub as the name of the registry access and specify your Docker Hub ID as the username. For the Docker Hub password, you can specify your Docker Hub password or an access token.

ibmcloud ce secret create --format registry --name dockerhub --server https://index.docker.io/v1/ --username username --password password

Example output

Creating registry secret 'dockerhub'...
OK

For more information, see add registry access documentation.

Create a build

Create a build that contains information about the source code for your app or job. Information can include location and access information for the job or app.

The ibmcloud ce build create command does not create an image, but creates the configuration to build an image. The ibmcloud ce buildrun submit command references the build configuration to create an image. The options that you specify on the build create command or build update command are not validated or used to create an image until the buildrun submit command executes. The build configuration enables multiple subsequent builds of an image, such as when changes are applied to the source repository.

In the following example, to create the build configuration, use the ibmcloud ce build create command. Use tutorial-build as the name of the build and specify https://github.com/IBM/CodeEngine as the location of the source code and /s2i-buildpacks as the context directory folder that contains your source. Use the dockerhub registry secret that was created previously for registry access. Specify buildpacks as the build strategy to compile the source code and specify small as the build size.

ibmcloud ce build create --name tutorial-build --source https://github.com/IBM/CodeEngine --commit main --context-dir /s2i-buildpacks --registry-secret dockerhub --image docker.io/<your_docker_ID>/tutorial --size small --strategy buildpacks

Example output

Creating build 'tutorial-build'...
OK

The size option specifies the size for the build, which determines the amount of resources that are used. Valid values are small, medium, large, xlarge, and xxlarge. The size reflects the build requirements for your source code for your app or job. If the build fails due to lack of memory or disk space, or is not fast enough, try switching to a larger size. A larger build size also means that more memory and CPU cores are assigned to the build process. Increasing this size can probably speed up the build process, but this action also increases the cost. For more information about builds, check the troubleshooting tips.

Submit a build run

Now that your build configuration is created, you can run a build based on that build configuration by using the ibmcloud ce buildrun submit command. In the following example, reference the tutorial-build build configuration and submit the build run. The system generates a unique build run name. You can optionally provide a name for your build run by using the --name option, which can be helpful as the name of the build run is required for obtaining build run details. In this example, the system automatically generates the build run name.

ibmcloud ce buildrun submit --build tutorial-build

Example output

Submitting build run 'tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000'...
Run 'ibmcloud ce buildrun get -n tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000' to check the build run status.
OK

To check the status of the build run, use the buildrun get ibmcloud ce buildrun get command to display details of the build run.

ibmcloud ce buildrun get --name tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000

Example output

Getting build run 'tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000'...
[...]
OK

Name:          tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000
ID:            abcdefgh-abcd-abcd-abcd-1a2b3c4d5e6f
Project Name:  myproject 
Project ID:    01234567-abcd-abcd-abcd-abcdabcd1111
Age:           3m42s  
Created:       2021-03-14T14:31:21-05:00  

Summary:  Succeeded  
Status:   Succeeded  
Reason:   Succeeded  

The build is complete when the status is Succeeded.

If there is a problem with the build run, use the ibmcloud ce buildrun logs command to display logs about the build run.

ibmcloud ce buildrun logs --buildrun tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000

Example output

Getting build run 'tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000'...
Getting instances of build run 'tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000'...
Getting logs for build run 'tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000'...
OK

tutorial-build-run-851026-090000000-7vlrw-pod-c9t6g/step-git-source-source-7tbwh:
{"level":"info","ts":1610378702.42616,"caller":"git/git.go:165","msg":"Successfully cloned https://github.com/IBM/CodeEngine @ 6b66f2bc3e1277c2e6475608a9c50335712116e0 (grafted,  HEAD, origin/main) in path /workspace/source"}
{"level":"info","ts":1610378703.5453625,"caller":"git/git.go:203","msg":"Successfully initialized and updated submodules in path /workspace/source"}
[...]

Your container image is successfully built from source code by using the buildpacks build strategy!

Work with the container image

Now that your container image is built and the image is pushed to the configured container registry location, you can deploy the image in Code Engine. For example, you can create a Code Engine app that uses the created image.

ibmcloud ce application create --name tutorial-app --image <your_docker_ID>/tutorial

Example output

Creating application 'tutorial-app'...
[...]

Next steps for buildpacks

For more information, see Deploying applications.

Does your source code project use Dockerfile? Follow the same steps, but specify the Dockerfile build strategy to build an image for your application or job. For more information about Dockerfile, see Writing a Dockerfile for Code Engine.

Looking for more code examples? Check out the Samples for IBM Cloud Code Engine GitHub repo.