thriftybuilder 1.1.0
Builds Docker images, capturing information to reduce the frequency of future re-builds
License: MIT

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# Thrifty Builder
_Builds Docker images, capturing information to reduce the frequency of future re-builds_

## Introduction
Thrifty builder stores a hash of all the ingredients that go into building a Docker image so the tool is able to 
determine if an image has already been built before, even if the build cache has been emptied or if the build is taking
place on a different machine with a separate cache.

In our setup, we are building a large number of Docker images in our CI. The CI job runs on a different machine each 
time (with separate caches), meaning that if `docker build` was used, all images would be rebuild every time 
the CI runs. Pulling first would sped things up but it would require all images to be downloaded to the build machine 
first! 

The aim is to minimise our CI run time and to keep our Docker images as stable as possible (it is usually 
extremely difficult to version everything that goes into an image so each re-build will create a slightly different 
image, even if the context and Dockerfile are the same).  


## Installation
Prerequisites
- Docker (Server API version >= 1.21)
- Python 3.6+

The tool can be installed from PyPi:
```bash
pip install thriftybuilder
```

Bleeding edge versions can be installed directly from GitHub:
```bash
pip install git+https://github.com/wtsi-hgi/thrifty-builder.git@master#egg=thriftybuilder
```


## Usage
### Configuration
A build configuration YAML file is required to use the tool. This file details the images that are to be built, the 
Docker registries to push the created images to (optional) and the location of the checksum storage.

#### Storage
##### stdin/stdout
(Default if not specified) 
```yaml
checksum_storage:
  type: stdio
```

##### Local
```yaml
checksum_storage:
  type: local
  path: /root/.thrifty/checksums
``` 

##### Consul
```yaml
checksum_storage:
  type: consul
  url: https://example.com:8500           # Optional: derived from Consul environment variables if not set
  token: "{{ env['CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN'] }}"   # Optional: derived from Consul environment variables if not set
  key: ci/image-checksums
  lock: ci/image-checksums.lock
```
_Note: to use Consul-backed storage, the requirements in `consul_requirements.txt` must be installed (not done so by 
default)._


### CLI
```
usage: thrifty [-h] [-v] [--built-only] configuration-location

Builds Docker images, capturing information to reduce the frequency of future
re-builds (v1.0.0b0)

positional arguments:
  configuration-location
                        location of configuration

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v                    increase the level of log verbosity (add multiple
                        increase further)
  --built-only          only print details about newly built images on stdout
```


### Example
_configuration.yml_
```yaml
docker:
  images:
    - name: wtsi-hgi/image-1
      dockerfile: /images/image-1/Dockerfile
      context: /images
    - name: wtsi-hgi/image-2:version-1
      dockerfile: /images/image-2/Dockerfile
      # Context assumed to be /images/image-2 
  registries:
    - url: docker.io
      username: "{{ env['DOCKER_IO_USERNAME'] }}"
      password: "{{ env['DOCKER_IO_PASSWORD'] }}"
      
checksum_storage:
  type: consul
  url: "{{ env['CONSUL_HTTP_ADDR'] }}"
  token: "{{ env['CONSUL_HTTP_TOKEN'] }}"
  key: ci/image-checksums
  lock: ci/image-checksums.lock
```

CLI:
```bash
thrifty configuration.yml
{"wtsi-hgi/image-1": "b2db4c1ae978201407c69573ba89a9b8", "wtsi-hgi/image-2": "f9a4d7cc9f7133756b36973cc2d888de"}

```


## Development
### Setup
Install the tool's dependencies and the dependencies needed for testing:
```bash
pip install -U -r test_requirements.txt
pip install -U -r requirements.txt
pip install -U -r consul-requirements.txt
```

### Testing
In the project directory, run:
```bash
PYTHONPATH=. python -m unittest discover -v -s thriftybuilder/tests
```

The CI runs the tests and generates coverage with `run-tests.sh`. This script runs the tests as described above in, 
addition to testing that the tool can be installed without errors.

To run the tests entirely in docker, use `run-tests-in-docker.sh` (experimental).


## Alternatives
- Share a build cache between all image building machines and make sure the cache is not lost.  
- More exotic Docker image builders might store information about the build context with the built image.