Bob Containers Example

This repository is meant as an example of how to build a complete Linux image with Bob that can be used as-is or with minimal changes for various uses, such as a Docker container, as a virtual machine, on a SD card in your single board computer or with systemd-nspawn.

It uses the basement recipe layer to build a Docker container running lighttpd, with only the necessary dependencies installed - in contrast to building such a container on top of a Debian release. For more information about recipe layers and Bob's usage in general see its documentation.

If you're interested in building an embedded application using Bob and the basement layer, head over to the embedded example.

Prerequisites

• A x86_64 system with the regular development tools installed (GCC, make, Perl, ...)
• Bob Build Tool
• Patience ☕

How to build

First of all you have to clone the recipes and change to the checked-out directory:

$ git clone https://github.com/BobBuildTool/bob-example-containers.git \
    --recurse-submodules
$ cd bob-example-containers

The next steps depend on what you want to build.

Docker Container

These recipes can build a minimal container image that has solely lighttpd and the required dependencies installed by running the following command:

$ # Still in the bob-example-containers directory
$ bob build containers::lighttpd

Systemd Portable Service

These recipes can also provide a systemd portable service that can be attached with portablectl by issuing the following command:

$ # Still in the bob-example-containers directory
$ bob build containers::lighttpd-image

How to use

Again, usage of the build products depends on the chosen target.

Docker Container

To use it you have to import it in Docker:

$ # Still in the bob-example-containers directory after building
$ # containers::lighttpd
$ tar -C $(bob query-path -f '{dist}' --release containers::lighttpd) -c . \
    | docker import - lighttpd

Now you can serve any host directory with the lighttpd in the image:

$ docker run -it --rm -p 8080:80 -v <your-html-dir>:/srv/www lighttpd \
    /usr/sbin/lighttpd -D -f /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf \
    -m /usr/lib/lighttpd

This will expose the lighttpd at port 8080 on your host.

Systemd Portable Service

First you have to import the portable service:

$ # Still in the bob-example-containers directory after building
$ # containers::lighttpd-image
$ portablectl attach $(bob query-path -f '{dist}' --release containers::lighttpd-image)/lighttpd.raw

Now you can start the lighttpd as any other systemd service on your host:

$ systemctl start lighttpd.service

lighttpd should now listen on port 80.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome in form of feedback, bug reports and code. If you want to contribute in the form of code but are unsure about how to do things exactly, feel free to open up a pull request and ask for help.

Currently planned extension are:

• Support generating more image formats