apko
nerdctl
apko | nerdctl | |
---|---|---|
14 | 33 | |
1,078 | 7,456 | |
6.8% | 2.4% | |
9.4 | 9.6 | |
7 days ago | 7 days ago | |
Go | Go | |
Apache License 2.0 | Apache License 2.0 |
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apko
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Distroless images using melange and apko
apko allows us to build OCI container images from .apk packages.
- Build OCI images from APK packages directly without Dockerfile
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Docker Is Four Things
We have built something very similar to what you are describing: https://github.com/chainguard-dev/apko
- Apko: APK-based OCI image builder
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Tool to build Docker images
apko
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An Overview of Kubernetes Security Projects at KubeCon Europe 2023
Chainguard also appears to have several open source projects.The most popular one is apko, used for building OCI images from APK packages.
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aws-cli v2: how much smaller can it get? Answer: a lot smaller :)
Once those are done, I just need to build aws-cli package, put those APK files in a final image with Chainguard's apko.
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Crafting container images without Dockerfiles
This is one of my absolute favorite topics. Pardon me while I rant and self-promote :D
Dockerfiles are great for flexibility, and have been a critical contributor to the adoption of Docker containers. It's very easy to take a base image, add a thing to it, and publish your version.
Unfortunately Dockerfiles are also full of gotchas and opaque cargo-culted best practices to avoid them. Being an open-ended execution environment, it's basically impossible to tell even during the build what's being added to the image, which has downstream implications for anybody trying to get an SBOM from the image for example.
Instead, I contribute to a number of tools to build and manage images without Dockerfiles. Each of them are less featureful than Dockerfiles, but being more constrained in what they can do, you can get a lot more visibility into what they're doing, since they're not able to do "whatever the user wants".
1. https://github.com/google/go-containerregistry is a Go module to interact with images in the registry and in tarballs and layouts, in the local docker daemon. You can append layers, squash layers, modify metadata, etc.
2. crane is a CLI that uses the above (in the same repo) to make many of the same modifications from the commandline. `crane append` for instance adds a layer containing some contents to an image, entirely in the registry, without even pulling the base image.
3. ko (https://ko.build) is a tool to build Go applications into images without Dockerfiles or Docker at all. It runs `go build`, appends that binary on top of a base image, and pushes it directly to the registry. It generates an SBOM declaring what Go modules went into the app it put into the image, since that's all it can do.
4. apko (https://apko.dev) is a tool to assemble an image from pre-built apks, without Docker. It's capable of producing "distroless" images easily with config in YAML. It generates an SBOM declaring exactly what apks it put in the image, since that's all it can do.
Bazel's rules_docker is another contender in the space, and GCP's distroless images use it to place Debian .debs into an image. Apko is its spiritual successor, and uses YAML instead of Bazel's own config language, which makes it a lot easier to adopt and use (IMO), with all of the same benefits.
I'm excited to see more folks realizing that Dockerfiles aren't always necessary, and can sometimes make your life harder. I'm extra excited to see more tools and tutorials digging into the details of how container images work, and preaching the gospel that they can be built and modified using existing tooling and relatively simple libraries. Excellent article!
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Vulnerability scanner written in Go that uses osv.dev data
Depends exactly what you're trying to create it for. I advocate for doing it during the build process rather than as a step after.
We open sourced a few tools that do it automatically for containers:
https://github.com/chainguard-dev/apko
https://github.com/chainguard-dev/melange
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Apko: A Better Way To Build Containers?
apko takes apk packages and builds them into OCI images (aka Docker images). Sounds quite simple, because it is:
nerdctl
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Colima k8s nix setup
What about the docker-cli? colima also ships with a docker-compatible cli to interact with containerd called nerdctl. We can execute the same docker cli commands like:
- Nerdctl v2 Beta
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Nginx Unit – Universal web app server
Using nerdctl: https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl
I'd really disagree that compose files are somehow one-shot, or blindly modified. To the contrary, really, we have them checked in with the source code. Upon deployment to the cluster, the (running) services will be intelligently updated or replaced (in a rolling manner, causing zero downtime). LXC might be more elegant, but I have no idea what simple, file-based format I could use to let engineers describe the environment their app should run in without compose.
I need something that even junior devs can start up with a single command, that can be placed in the VCS along with the code, and that will not require deep Linux knowledge to get running. Open for suggestions here, really.
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Jenkins Agents On Kubernetes
Now since Kubernetes works off of containerd I'll be taking a different approach on handling container builds by using nerdctl and the buildkit that comes bundled with it. I'll do this on the amd64 control plane node since it's beefier than my Raspberry Pi workers for handling builds and build related services. Go ahead and download and unpack the latest nerdctl release as of writing (make sure to check the release page in case there's a new one):
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Going through a Kubernetes training with autogenerated captions and about half are coming up like this.
That's why nerdctl, their cli binary, is so well named.
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Python + containerd? Who might be interested?
Well, it is indeed a good option. However, containerd is a good alternative that is growing even among developers. Please see: https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl
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How to own your own Docker Registry address
Nerdctl/containerd has IPFS support :)
https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/blob/main/docs/ipfs.md
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DockerHub replacement stratagy and options
nerdctl supports IPFS for both image pulling and pushing, including encrypted images and eStargz lazy pulling. For building, the current method is a locally hosted translator so that the traditional pulls can be converted to work over IPFS. They even have docs on running it on k8s node, though if my reading is correct this isn't exactly a cloud native approach (running systemd services on each node...).
- Docker's deleting Open Source images and here's what you need to know
- Release v1.0.0 · containerd/nerdctl
What are some alternatives?
distroless - 🥑 Language focused docker images, minus the operating system.
lima - Linux virtual machines, with a focus on running containers
docker-pushmi-pullyu - Copy Docker images directly to a remote host without using Docker Hub or a hosted registry.
podman-compose - a script to run docker-compose.yml using podman
containerd - An open and reliable container runtime
kaniko - Build Container Images In Kubernetes
melange - build APKs from source code
podman - Podman: A tool for managing OCI containers and pods.
osv-scanner - Vulnerability scanner written in Go which uses the data provided by https://osv.dev
Moby - The Moby Project - a collaborative project for the container ecosystem to assemble container-based systems
gvisor - Application Kernel for Containers
k3s - Lightweight Kubernetes