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layout	page_title	description
docs	Docker Builder	The `docker` Packer builder builds Docker images using Docker. The builder starts a Docker container, runs provisioners within this container, then exports the container for reuse or commits the image.

Docker Builder

Type: docker

The docker Packer builder builds Docker images using Docker. The builder starts a Docker container, runs provisioners within this container, then exports the container for reuse or commits the image.

Packer builds Docker containers without the use of Dockerfiles. By not using Dockerfiles, Packer is able to provision containers with portable scripts or configuration management systems that are not tied to Docker in any way. It also has a simpler mental model: you provision containers much the same way you provision a normal virtualized or dedicated server. For more information, read the section on Dockerfiles.

The Docker builder must run on a machine that has Docker installed. Therefore the builder only works on machines that support Docker (modern Linux machines). If you want to use Packer to build Docker containers on another platform, use Vagrant to start a Linux environment, then run Packer within that environment.

Basic Example: Export

Below is a fully functioning example. It doesn't do anything useful, since no provisioners are defined, but it will effectively repackage an image.

{
  "type": "docker",
  "image": "ubuntu",
  "export_path": "image.tar"
}

Basic Example: Commit

Below is another example, the same as above but instead of exporting the running container, this one commits the container to an image. The image can then be more easily tagged, pushed, etc.

{
  "type": "docker",
  "image": "ubuntu",
  "commit": true
}

Configuration Reference

Configuration options are organized below into two categories: required and optional. Within each category, the available options are alphabetized and described.

Required:

commit (boolean) - If true, the container will be committed to an image rather than exported. This cannot be set if export_path is set.
export_path (string) - The path where the final container will be exported as a tar file. This cannot be set if commit is set to true.
image (string) - The base image for the Docker container that will be started. This image will be pulled from the Docker registry if it doesn't already exist.

Optional:

login (boolean) - Defaults to false. If true, the builder will login in order to pull the image. The builder only logs in for the duration of the pull. It always logs out afterwards.
login_email (string) - The email to use to authenticate to login.
login_username (string) - The username to use to authenticate to login.
login_password (string) - The password to use to authenticate to login.
login_server (string) - The server address to login to.
pull (boolean) - If true, the configured image will be pulled using docker pull prior to use. Otherwise, it is assumed the image already exists and can be used. This defaults to true if not set.
run_command (array of strings) - An array of arguments to pass to docker run in order to run the container. By default this is set to ["-d", "-i", "-t", "{{.Image}}", "/bin/bash"]. As you can see, you have a couple template variables to customize, as well.
volumes (map of strings to strings) - A mapping of additional volumes to mount into this container. The key of the object is the host path, the value is the container path.

Using the Artifact: Export

Once the tar artifact has been generated, you will likely want to import, tag, and push it to a container repository. Packer can do this for you automatically with the docker-import and docker-push post-processors.

Note: This section is covering how to use an artifact that has been exported. More specifically, if you set export_path in your configuration. If you set commit, see the next section.

The example below shows a full configuration that would import and push the created image:

{
  "post-processors": [
		[
			{
				"type": "docker-import",
				"repository": "mitchellh/packer",
				"tag": "0.7"
			},
			"docker-push"
		]
	]
}

If you want to do this manually, however, perhaps from a script, you can import the image using the process below:

$ docker import - registry.mydomain.com/mycontainer:latest < artifact.tar

You can then add additional tags and push the image as usual with docker tag and docker push, respectively.

Using the Artifact: Committed

If you committed your container to an image, you probably want to tag, save, push, etc. Packer can do this automatically for you. An example is shown below which tags and pushes the image:

{
  "post-processors": [
		[
			{
				"type": "docker-tag",
				"repository": "mitchellh/packer",
				"tag": "0.7"
			},
			"docker-push"
		]
	]
}

Dockerfiles

This builder allows you to build Docker images without Dockerfiles.

With this builder, you can repeatably create Docker images without the use of a Dockerfile. You don't need to know the syntax or semantics of Dockerfiles. Instead, you can just provide shell scripts, Chef recipes, Puppet manifests, etc. to provision your Docker container just like you would a regular virtualized or dedicated machine.

While Docker has many features, Packer views Docker simply as an LXC container runner. To that end, Packer is able to repeatably build these LXC containers using portable provisioning scripts.

Dockerfiles have some additional features that Packer doesn't support which are able to be worked around. Many of these features will be automated by Packer in the future:

Dockerfiles will snapshot the container at each step, allowing you to go back to any step in the history of building. Packer doesn't do this yet, but inter-step snapshotting is on the way.
Dockerfiles can contain information such as exposed ports, shared volumes, and other metadata. Packer builds a raw Docker container image that has none of this metadata. You can pass in much of this metadata at runtime with docker run.

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