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BuildStrategies

Overview

There are two types of strategies, the ClusterBuildStrategy (clusterbuildstrategies.shipwright.io/v1beta1) and the BuildStrategy (buildstrategies.shipwright.io/v1beta1). Both strategies define a shared group of steps, needed to fullfil the application build.

A ClusterBuildStrategy is available cluster-wide, while a BuildStrategy is available within a namespace.

Available ClusterBuildStrategies

Well-known strategies can be bootstrapped from here. The currently supported Cluster BuildStrategy are:

Name Supported platforms
buildah all
BuildKit all
buildpacks-v3-heroku linux/amd64 only
buildpacks-v3 linux/amd64 only
kaniko all
ko all
source-to-image linux/amd64 only

Available BuildStrategies

The current supported namespaces BuildStrategy are:

Name Supported platforms
buildpacks-v3-heroku linux/amd64 only
buildpacks-v3 linux/amd64 only

Buildah

The buildah ClusterBuildStrategy uses buildah to build and push a container image, out of a Dockerfile. The Dockerfile should be specified on the Build resource.

The strategy is available in two formats:

Learn more about the differences of shipwright-, or strategy-managed push

Installing Buildah Strategy

To install use:

kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildah/buildstrategy_buildah_shipwright_managed_push_cr.yaml
kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildah/buildstrategy_buildah_strategy_managed_push_cr.yaml

Buildpacks v3

The buildpacks-v3 BuildStrategy/ClusterBuildStrategy uses a Cloud Native Builder (CNB) container image, and is able to implement lifecycle commands.

Installing Buildpacks v3 Strategy

You can install the BuildStrategy in your namespace or install the ClusterBuildStrategy at cluster scope so that it can be shared across namespaces.

To install the cluster scope strategy, you can choose between the Paketo and Heroku buildpacks family:

# Paketo
kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildpacks-v3/buildstrategy_buildpacks-v3_cr.yaml

# Heroku
kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildpacks-v3/buildstrategy_buildpacks-v3-heroku_cr.yaml

To install the namespaced scope strategy, you can choose between the Paketo and Heroku buildpacks family:

# Paketo
kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildpacks-v3/buildstrategy_buildpacks-v3_namespaced_cr.yaml

# Heroku
kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildpacks-v3/buildstrategy_buildpacks-v3-heroku_namespaced_cr.yaml

Kaniko

The kaniko ClusterBuildStrategy is composed by Kaniko's executor kaniko, with the objective of building a container-image, out of a Dockerfile and context directory.

Installing Kaniko Strategy

To install the cluster scope strategy, use:

kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/kaniko/buildstrategy_kaniko_cr.yaml

BuildKit

BuildKit is composed of the buildctl client and the buildkitd daemon. For the buildkit ClusterBuildStrategy, it runs on a daemonless mode, where both client and ephemeral daemon run in a single container. In addition, it runs without privileges (rootless).

Cache Exporters

By default, the buildkit ClusterBuildStrategy will use caching to optimize the build times. When pushing an image to a registry, it will use the inline export cache, which appends cache information to the image that is built. Please refer to export-cache docs for more information. Caching can be disabled by setting the cache parameter to "disabled". See Defining ParamValues for more information.

Build-args and secrets

The sample build strategy contains array parameters to set values for ARGs in your Dockerfile, and for mounts with type=secret. The parameter names are build-args and secrets. Defining ParamValues contains example usage.

Multi-platform builds

The sample build strategy contains a platforms array parameter that you can set to leverage BuildKit's support to build multi-platform images. If you do not set this value, the image is built for the platform that is supported by the FROM image. If that image supports multiple platforms, then the image will be built for the platform of your Kubernetes node.

Known Limitations

The buildkit ClusterBuildStrategy currently locks the following parameters:

  • To allow running rootless, it requires both AppArmor and SecComp to be disabled using the unconfined profile.

Usage in Clusters with Pod Security Standards

The BuildKit strategy contains fields with regard to security settings. It therefore depends on the respective cluster setup and administrative configuration. These settings are:

  • Defining the unconfined profile for both AppArmor and seccomp as required by the underlying rootlesskit.
  • The allowPrivilegeEscalation settings is set to true to be able to use binaries that have the setuid bit set in order to run with "root" level privileges. In case of BuildKit, this is required by rootlesskit in order to set the user namespace mapping file /proc/<pid>/uid_map.
  • Use of non-root user with UID 1000/GID 1000 as the runAsUser.

These settings have no effect in case Pod Security Standards are not used.

Please note: At this point in time, there is no way to run rootlesskit to start the BuildKit daemon without the allowPrivilegeEscalation flag set to true. Clusters with the Restricted security standard in place will not be able to use this build strategy.

Installing BuildKit Strategy

To install the cluster scope strategy, use:

kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/buildkit/buildstrategy_buildkit_cr.yaml

ko

The ko ClusterBuilderStrategy is using ko's publish command to build an image from a Golang main package.

Installing ko Strategy

To install the cluster scope strategy, use:

kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/ko/buildstrategy_ko_cr.yaml

Parameters

The build strategy provides the following parameters that you can set in a Build or BuildRun to control its behavior:

Parameter Description Default
go-flags Value for the GOFLAGS environment variable. Empty
go-version Version of Go, must match a tag from the golang image 1.21
ko-version Version of ko, must be either latest for the newest release, or a ko release name latest
package-directory The directory inside the context directory containing the main package. .
target-platform Target platform to be built. For example: linux/arm64. Multiple platforms can be provided separated by comma, for example: linux/arm64,linux/amd64. The value all will build all platforms supported by the base image. The value current will build the platform on which the build runs. current

Volumes

Volume Description
gocache Volume to contain the GOCACHE. Can be set to a persistent volume to optimize compilation performance for rebuilds. The default is an emptyDir volume which means that the cached data is discarded at the end of a BuildRun.

Source to Image

This BuildStrategy is composed by source-to-image and kaniko in order to generate a Dockerfile and prepare the application to be built later on with a builder.

s2i requires a specially crafted image, which can be informed as builderImage parameter on the Build resource.

Installing Source to Image Strategy

To install the cluster scope strategy use:

kubectl apply -f samples/v1beta1/buildstrategy/source-to-image/buildstrategy_source-to-image_cr.yaml

Build Steps

  1. s2i in order to generate a Dockerfile and prepare source-code for image build;
  2. kaniko to create and push the container image to what is defined as output.image;

Strategy parameters

Strategy parameters allow users to parameterize their strategy definition, by allowing users to control the parameters values via the Build or BuildRun resources.

Users defining parameters under their strategies require to understand the following:

  • Definition: A list of parameters should be defined under spec.parameters. Each list item should consist of a name, a description, a type (either "array" or "string") and optionally a default value (for type=string), or defaults values (for type=array). If no default(s) are provided, then the user must define a value in the Build or BuildRun.

  • Usage: In order to use a parameter in the strategy steps, use the following syntax for type=string: $(params.your-parameter-name). String parameters can be used in all places in the buildSteps. Some example scenarios are:

    • image: to use a custom tag, for example golang:$(params.go-version) as it is done in the ko sample build strategy
    • args: to pass data into your builder command
    • env: to force a user to provide a value for an environment variable.

    Arrays are referenced using $(params.your-array-parameter-name[*]), and can only be used in as the value for args or command because the defined as arrays by Kubernetes. For every item in the array, an arg will be set. For example, if you specify this in your build strategy step:

    spec:
  parameters:
    - name: tool-args
      description: Parameters for the tool
      type: array
  steps:
    - name: a-step
      command:
        - some-tool
      args:
        - $(params.tool-args[*])

    If the build user sets the value of tool-args to ["--some-arg", "some-value"], then the Pod will contain these args:

    spec:
  containers:
    - name: a-step
      args:
      ...
        - --some-arg
        - some-value

  • Parameterize: Any Build or BuildRun referencing your strategy, can set a value for your-parameter-name parameter if needed.

Note: Users can provide parameter values as simple strings or as references to keys in ConfigMaps and Secrets. If they use a ConfigMap or Secret, then the value can only be used if the parameter is used in the command, args, or env section of the buildSteps. For example, the above-mentioned scenario to set a step's image to golang:$(params.go-version) does not allow the usage of ConfigMaps or Secrets.

The following example is from the BuildKit sample build strategy. It defines and uses several parameters:

---
apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterBuildStrategy
metadata:
  name: buildkit
  ...
spec:
  parameters:
  - name: build-args
    description: "The values for the ARGs in the Dockerfile. Values must be in the format KEY=VALUE."
    type: array
    defaults: []
  - name: cache
    description: "Configure BuildKit's cache usage. Allowed values are 'disabled' and 'registry'. The default is 'registry'."
    type: string
    default: registry
  - name: insecure-registry
    type: string
    description: "enables the push to an insecure registry"
    default: "false"
  - name: secrets
    description: "The secrets to pass to the build. Values must be in the format ID=FILE_CONTENT."
    type: array
    defaults: []
  - name: dockerfile
    description: The path to the Dockerfile to be used for building the image.
    type: string
    default: "Dockerfile"
  steps:
    ...
    - name: build-and-push
      image: moby/buildkit:nightly-rootless
      imagePullPolicy: Always
      workingDir: $(params.shp-source-root)
      ...
      command:
        - /bin/ash
      args:
        - -c
        - |
          set -euo pipefail

          # Prepare the file arguments
          DOCKERFILE_PATH='$(params.shp-source-context)/$(params.dockerfile)'
          DOCKERFILE_DIR="$(dirname "${DOCKERFILE_PATH}")"
          DOCKERFILE_NAME="$(basename "${DOCKERFILE_PATH}")"

          # We only have ash here and therefore no bash arrays to help add dynamic arguments (the build-args) to the build command.

          echo "#!/bin/ash" > /tmp/run.sh
          echo "set -euo pipefail" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "buildctl-daemonless.sh \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "build \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "--progress=plain \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "--frontend=dockerfile.v0 \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "--opt=filename=\"${DOCKERFILE_NAME}\" \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "--local=context='$(params.shp-source-context)' \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "--local=dockerfile=\"${DOCKERFILE_DIR}\" \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          echo "--output=type=image,name='$(params.shp-output-image)',push=true,registry.insecure=$(params.insecure-registry) \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          if [ "$(params.cache)" == "registry" ]; then
            echo "--export-cache=type=inline \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
            echo "--import-cache=type=registry,ref='$(params.shp-output-image)' \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          elif [ "$(params.cache)" == "disabled" ]; then
            echo "--no-cache \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
          else
            echo -e "An invalid value for the parameter 'cache' has been provided: '$(params.cache)'. Allowed values are 'disabled' and 'registry'."
            echo -n "InvalidParameterValue" > '$(results.shp-error-reason.path)'
            echo -n "An invalid value for the parameter 'cache' has been provided: '$(params.cache)'. Allowed values are 'disabled' and 'registry'." > '$(results.shp-error-message.path)'
            exit 1
          fi

          stage=""
          for a in "$@"
          do
            if [ "${a}" == "--build-args" ]; then
              stage=build-args
            elif [ "${a}" == "--secrets" ]; then
              stage=secrets
            elif [ "${stage}" == "build-args" ]; then
              echo "--opt=\"build-arg:${a}\" \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
            elif [ "${stage}" == "secrets" ]; then
              # Split ID=FILE_CONTENT into variables id and data

              # using head because the data could be multiline
              id="$(echo "${a}" | head -1 | sed 's/=.*//')"

              # This is hacky, we remove the suffix ${id}= from all lines of the data.
              # If the data would be multiple lines and a line would start with ${id}=
              # then we would remove it. We could force users to give us the secret
              # base64 encoded. But ultimately, the best solution might be if the user
              # mounts the secret and just gives us the path here.
              data="$(echo "${a}" | sed "s/^${id}=//")"

              # Write the secret data into a temporary file, once we have volume support
              # in the build strategy, we should use a memory based emptyDir for this.
              echo -n "${data}" > "/tmp/secret_${id}"

              # Add the secret argument
              echo "--secret id=${id},src="/tmp/secret_${id}" \\" >> /tmp/run.sh
            fi
          done

          echo "--metadata-file /tmp/image-metadata.json" >> /tmp/run.sh

          chmod +x /tmp/run.sh
          /tmp/run.sh

          # Store the image digest
          sed -E 's/.*containerimage.digest":"([^"]*).*/\1/' < /tmp/image-metadata.json > '$(results.shp-image-digest.path)'
        # That's the separator between the shell script and its args
        - --
        - --build-args
        - $(params.build-args[*])
        - --secrets
        - $(params.secrets[*])

See more information on how to use these parameters in a Build or BuildRun in the related documentation.

System parameters

Contrary to the strategy spec.parameters, you can use system parameters and their values defined at runtime when defining the steps of a build strategy to access system information as well as information provided by the user in their Build or BuildRun. The following parameters are available:

Parameter Description
$(params.shp-source-root) The absolute path to the directory that contains the user's sources.
$(params.shp-source-context) The absolute path to the context directory of the user's sources. If the user specified no value for spec.source.contextDir in their Build, then this value will equal the value for $(params.shp-source-root). Note that this directory is not guaranteed to exist at the time the container for your step is started, you can therefore not use this parameter as a step's working directory.
$(params.shp-output-directory) The absolute path to a directory that the build strategy should store the image in. You can store a single tarball containing a single image, or an OCI image layout.
$(params.shp-output-image) The URL of the image that the user wants to push, as specified in the Build's spec.output.image or as an override from the BuildRun's spec.output.image.
$(params.shp-output-insecure) A flag that indicates the output image's registry location is insecure because it uses a certificate not signed by a certificate authority, or uses HTTP.

Output directory vs. output image

As a build strategy author, you decide whether your build strategy or Shipwright pushes the build image to the container registry:

  • If you DO NOT use $(params.shp-output-directory), then Shipwright assumes that your build strategy PUSHES the image. We call this a strategy-managed push.
  • If you DO use $(params.shp-output-directory), then Shipwright assumes that your build strategy does NOT PUSH the image. We call this a shipwright-managed push.

When you use the $(params.shp-output-directory) parameter, then Shipwright will also set the image-related system results.

If you are uncertain about how to implement your build strategy, then follow this guidance:

  1. If your build strategy tool cannot locally store an image but always pushes it, then you must do the push operation. An example is the Buildpacks strategy. You SHOULD respect the $(params.shp-output-insecure) parameter.
  2. If your build strategy tool can locally store an image, then the choice depends on how you expect your build users to make use of your strategy, and the nature of your strategy.
    1. Some build strategies do not produce all layers of an image, but use a common base image and put one or more layers on top with the application. An example is ko. Such base image layers are often already present in the destination registry (like in rebuilds). If the strategy can perform the push operation, then it can optimize the process and can omit the download of the base image when it is not required to push it. In the case of a shipwright-managed push, the complete image must be locally stored in $(params.shp-output-directory), which implies that a base image must always be downloaded.
    2. Some build strategy tools do not make it easy to determine the digest or size of the image, which can make it complex for you to set the strategy results. In the case of a shipwright-managed push, Shipwright has the responsibility to set them.
    3. Build users can configure the build to amend additional annotations, or labels to the final image. In the case of a shipwright-managed push, these can be set directly and the image will only be pushed once. In a strategy-managed push scenario, your build strategy will push the first version of the image without those annotations and labels. Shipwright will then mutate the image and push it again with the updated annotations and labels. Such a duplicate push can cause unexpected behavior with registries that trigger other actions when an image gets pushed, or that do not allow overwriting a tag.
    4. The Shipwright maintainers plan to provide more capabilities in the future that need the image locally, such as vulnerability scanning, or software bill of material (SBOM) creation. These capabilities may be only fully supported with shipwright-managed push.

System parameters vs Strategy Parameters Comparison

Parameter Type User Configurable Definition
System Parameter No At run-time, by the BuildRun controller.
Strategy Parameter Yes At build-time, during the BuildStrategy creation.

Securely referencing string parameters

In build strategy steps, string parameters are referenced using $(params.PARAM_NAME). This applies to system parameters, and those parameters defined in the build strategy. You can reference those parameters at many locations in the build steps, such as environment variables values, arguments, image, and more. In the Pod, all $(params.PARAM_NAME) tokens will be replaced by simple string replaces. This is safe in most locations but requires your attention when you define an inline script using an argument. For example:

spec:
  parameters:
    - name: sample-parameter
      description: A sample parameter
      type: string
  steps:
    - name: sample-step
      command:
        - /bin/bash
      args:
        - -c
        - |
          set -euo pipefail

          some-tool --sample-argument "$(params.sample-parameter)"

This opens the door to script injection, for example if the user sets the sample-parameter to argument-value" && malicious-command && echo ", the resulting pod argument will look like this:

        - |
          set -euo pipefail

          some-tool --sample-argument "argument-value" && malicious-command && echo ""

To securely pass a parameter value into a script-style argument, you can choose between these two approaches:

  1. Using environment variables. This is used in some of our sample strategies, for example ko, or buildpacks. Basically, instead of directly using the parameter inside the script, you pass it via environment variable. Using quoting, shells ensure that no command injection is possible:

    spec:
  parameters:
    - name: sample-parameter
      description: A sample parameter
      type: string
  steps:
    - name: sample-step
      env:
        - name: PARAM_SAMPLE_PARAMETER
          value: $(params.sample-parameter)
      command:
        - /bin/bash
      args:
        - -c
        - |
          set -euo pipefail

          some-tool --sample-argument "${PARAM_SAMPLE_PARAMETER}"

  2. Using arguments. This is used in some of our sample build strategies, for example buildah. Here, you use arguments to your own inline script. Appropriate shell quoting guards against command injection.

    spec:
  parameters:
    - name: sample-parameter
      description: A sample parameter
      type: string
  steps:
    - name: sample-step
      command:
        - /bin/bash
      args:
        - -c
        - |
          set -euo pipefail

          SAMPLE_PARAMETER="$1"

          some-tool --sample-argument "${SAMPLE_PARAMETER}"
        - --
        - $(params.sample-parameter)

System results

If you are using a strategy-managed push, see output directory vs output image, you can optionally store the size and digest of the image your build strategy created to a set of files.

Result file Description
$(results.shp-image-digest.path) File to store the digest of the image.
$(results.shp-image-size.path) File to store the compressed size of the image.

You can look at sample build strategies, such as Buildpacks, to see how they fill some or all of the results files.

This information will be available in the .status.output section of the BuildRun.

apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: BuildRun
# [...]
status:
 # [...]
  output:
    digest: sha256:07626e3c7fdd28d5328a8d6df8d29cd3da760c7f5e2070b534f9b880ed093a53
    size: 1989004
  # [...]

Additionally, you can store error details for debugging purposes when a BuildRun fails using your strategy.

Result file Description
$(results.shp-error-reason.path) File to store the error reason.
$(results.shp-error-message.path) File to store the error message.

Reason is intended to be a one-word CamelCase classification of the error source, with the first letter capitalized. Error details are only propagated if the build container terminates with a non-zero exit code. This information will be available in the .status.failureDetails section of the BuildRun.

apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: BuildRun
# [...]
status:
  # [...]
  failureDetails:
    location:
      container: step-source-default
      pod: baran-build-buildrun-gzmv5-b7wbf-pod-bbpqr
    message: The source repository does not exist, or you have insufficient permission
      to access it.
    reason: GitRemotePrivate

Security Contexts

In a build strategy, it is recommended that you define a securityContext with a runAsUser and runAsGroup:

spec:
  securityContext:
    runAsUser: 1000
    runAsGroup: 1000

This runAs configuration will be used for all shipwright-managed steps such as the step that retrieves the source code, and for the steps you define in the build strategy. This configuration ensures that all steps share the same runAs configuration which eliminates file permission problems.

Without a securityContext for the build strategy, shipwright-managed steps will run with the runAsUser and runAsGroup that is defined in the configuration's container templates that is potentially a different user than you use in your build strategy. This can result in issues when for example source code is downloaded as user A as defined by the Git container template, but your strategy accesses it as user B.

In build strategy steps you can define a step-specific securityContext that matches Kubernetes' security context where you can configure other security aspects such as capabilities or privileged containers.

Steps Resource Definition

All strategies steps can include a definition of resources(limits and requests) for CPU, memory and disk. For strategies with more than one step, each step(container) could require more resources than others. Strategy admins are free to define the values that they consider the best fit for each step. Also, identical strategies with the same steps that are only different in their name and step resources can be installed on the cluster to allow users to create a build with smaller and larger resource requirements.

Strategies with different resources

If the strategy admins required to have multiple flavours of the same strategy, where one strategy has more resources that the other. Then, multiple strategies for the same type should be defined on the cluster. In the following example, we use Kaniko as the type:

---
apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterBuildStrategy
metadata:
  name: kaniko-small
spec:
  steps:
    - name: build-and-push
      image: gcr.io/kaniko-project/executor:v1.23.2
      workingDir: $(params.shp-source-root)
      securityContext:
        runAsUser: 0
        capabilities:
          add:
            - CHOWN
            - DAC_OVERRIDE
            - FOWNER
            - SETGID
            - SETUID
            - SETFCAP
            - KILL
      env:
        - name: DOCKER_CONFIG
          value: /tekton/home/.docker
        - name: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
          value: NOT_SET
        - name: AWS_SECRET_KEY
          value: NOT_SET
      command:
        - /kaniko/executor
      args:
        - --skip-tls-verify=true
        - --dockerfile=$(params.dockerfile)
        - --context=$(params.shp-source-context)
        - --destination=$(params.shp-output-image)
        - --snapshot-mode=redo
        - --push-retry=3
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu: 250m
          memory: 65Mi
        requests:
          cpu: 250m
          memory: 65Mi
  parameters:
  - name: dockerfile
    description: The path to the Dockerfile to be used for building the image.
    type: string
    default: "Dockerfile"
---
apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: ClusterBuildStrategy
metadata:
  name: kaniko-medium
spec:
  steps:
    - name: build-and-push
      image: gcr.io/kaniko-project/executor:v1.23.2
      workingDir: $(params.shp-source-root)
      securityContext:
        runAsUser: 0
        capabilities:
          add:
            - CHOWN
            - DAC_OVERRIDE
            - FOWNER
            - SETGID
            - SETUID
            - SETFCAP
            - KILL
      env:
        - name: DOCKER_CONFIG
          value: /tekton/home/.docker
        - name: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
          value: NOT_SET
        - name: AWS_SECRET_KEY
          value: NOT_SET
      command:
        - /kaniko/executor
      args:
        - --skip-tls-verify=true
        - --dockerfile=$(params.dockerfile)
        - --context=$(params.shp-source-context)
        - --destination=$(params.shp-output-image)
        - --snapshot-mode=redo
        - --push-retry=3
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 1Gi
        requests:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 1Gi
  parameters:
  - name: dockerfile
    description: The path to the Dockerfile to be used for building the image.
    type: string
    default: "Dockerfile"

The above provides more control and flexibility for the strategy admins. For end-users, all they need to do, is to reference the proper strategy. For example:

---
apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: Build
metadata:
  name: kaniko-medium
spec:
  source:
    git:  
      url: https://github.com/shipwright-io/sample-go
    contextDir: docker-build
  strategy:
    name: kaniko
    kind: ClusterBuildStrategy
  paramValues:
  - name: dockerfile
    value: Dockerfile

How does Tekton Pipelines handle resources

The Build controller relies on the Tekton pipeline controller to schedule the pods that execute the above strategy steps. In a nutshell, the Build controller creates on run-time a Tekton TaskRun, and the TaskRun generates a new pod in the particular namespace. In order to build an image, the pod executes all the strategy steps one-by-one.

Tekton manage each step resources request in a very particular way, see the docs. From this document, it mentions the following:

The CPU, memory, and ephemeral storage resource requests will be set to zero, or, if specified, the minimums set through LimitRanges in that Namespace, if the container image does not have the largest resource request out of all container images in the Task. This ensures that the Pod that executes the Task only requests enough resources to run a single container image in the Task rather than hoard resources for all container images in the Task at once.

Examples of Tekton resources management

For a more concrete example, let´s take a look on the following scenarios:

Scenario 1. Namespace without LimitRange, both steps with the same resource values.

If we apply the following resources:

We will see some differences between the TaskRun definition and the pod definition.

For the TaskRun, as expected we can see the resources on each step, as we previously define on our strategy.

$ kubectl -n test-build get tr buildah-golang-buildrun-9gmcx-pod-lhzbc -o json | jq '.spec.taskSpec.steps[] | select(.name == "step-buildah-bud" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "65Mi"
  }
}

$ kubectl -n test-build get tr buildah-golang-buildrun-9gmcx-pod-lhzbc -o json | jq '.spec.taskSpec.steps[] | select(.name == "step-buildah-push" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "65Mi"
  }
}

The pod definition is different, while Tekton will only use the highest values of one container, and set the rest(lowest) to zero:

$ kubectl -n test-build get pods buildah-golang-buildrun-9gmcx-pod-lhzbc -o json | jq '.spec.containers[] | select(.name == "step-step-buildah-bud" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "ephemeral-storage": "0",
    "memory": "65Mi"
  }
}

$ kubectl -n test-build get pods buildah-golang-buildrun-9gmcx-pod-lhzbc -o json | jq '.spec.containers[] | select(.name == "step-step-buildah-push" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "0",               <------------------- See how the request is set to ZERO.
    "ephemeral-storage": "0", <------------------- See how the request is set to ZERO.
    "memory": "0"             <------------------- See how the request is set to ZERO.
  }
}

In this scenario, only one container can have the spec.resources.requests definition. Even when both steps have the same values, only one container will get them, the others will be set to zero.

Scenario 2. Namespace without LimitRange, steps with different resources:

If we apply the following resources:

  • buildahBuild

  • buildahBuildRun

  • We will use a modified buildah strategy, with the following steps resources:

      - name: buildah-bud
    image: quay.io/containers/buildah:v1.36.0
    workingDir: $(params.shp-source-root)
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    command:
      - /usr/bin/buildah
    args:
      - bud
      - --tag=$(params.shp-output-image)
      - --file=$(params.dockerfile)
      - $(build.source.contextDir)
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1Gi
      requests:
        cpu: 250m
        memory: 65Mi
    volumeMounts:
      - name: buildah-images
        mountPath: /var/lib/containers/storage
  - name: buildah-push
    image: quay.io/containers/buildah:v1.36.0
    securityContext:
      privileged: true
    command:
      - /usr/bin/buildah
    args:
      - push
      - --tls-verify=false
      - docker://$(params.shp-output-image)
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1Gi
      requests:
        cpu: 250m
        memory: 100Mi  <------ See how we provide more memory to step-buildah-push, compared to the 65Mi of the other step

For the TaskRun, as expected we can see the resources on each step.

$ kubectl -n test-build get tr buildah-golang-buildrun-skgrp -o json | jq '.spec.taskSpec.steps[] | select(.name == "step-buildah-bud" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "65Mi"
  }
}

$ kubectl -n test-build get tr buildah-golang-buildrun-skgrp -o json | jq '.spec.taskSpec.steps[] | select(.name == "step-buildah-push" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",
    "memory": "100Mi"
  }
}

The pod definition is different, while Tekton will only use the highest values of one container, and set the rest(lowest) to zero:

$ kubectl -n test-build get pods buildah-golang-buildrun-95xq8-pod-mww8d -o json | jq '.spec.containers[] | select(.name == "step-step-buildah-bud" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "250m",                <------------------- See how the CPU is preserved
    "ephemeral-storage": "0",
    "memory": "0"                 <------------------- See how the memory is set to ZERO
  }
}
$ kubectl -n test-build get pods buildah-golang-buildrun-95xq8-pod-mww8d -o json | jq '.spec.containers[] | select(.name == "step-step-buildah-push" ) | .resources'
{
  "limits": {
    "cpu": "500m",
    "memory": "1Gi"
  },
  "requests": {
    "cpu": "0",                     <------------------- See how the CPU is set to zero.
    "ephemeral-storage": "0",
    "memory": "100Mi"               <------------------- See how the memory is preserved on this container
  }
}

In the above scenario, we can see how the maximum numbers for resource requests are distributed between containers. The container step-buildah-push gets the 100mi for the memory requests, while it was the one defining the highest number. At the same time, the container step-buildah-bud is assigned a 0 for its memory request.

Scenario 3. Namespace with a LimitRange.

When a LimitRange exists on the namespace, Tekton Pipeline controller will do the same approach as stated in the above two scenarios. The difference is that for the containers that have lower values, instead of zero, they will get the minimum values of the LimitRange.

Annotations

Annotations can be defined for a BuildStrategy/ClusterBuildStrategy as for any other Kubernetes object. Annotations are propagated to the TaskRun and from there, Tekton propagates them to the Pod. Use cases for this are for example:

  • The Kubernetes Network Traffic Shaping feature looks for the kubernetes.io/ingress-bandwidth and kubernetes.io/egress-bandwidth annotations to limit the network bandwidth the Pod is allowed to use.
  • The AppArmor profile of a container is defined using the container.apparmor.security.beta.kubernetes.io/<container_name> annotation.

The following annotations are not propagated:

  • kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration
  • clusterbuildstrategy.shipwright.io/*
  • buildstrategy.shipwright.io/*
  • build.shipwright.io/*
  • buildrun.shipwright.io/*

A Kubernetes administrator can further restrict the usage of annotations by using policy engines like Open Policy Agent.

Volumes and VolumeMounts

Build Strategies can declare volumes. These volumes can be referred to by the build steps using volumeMount. Volumes in Build Strategy follow the declaration of Pod Volumes, so all the usual volumeSource types are supported.

Volumes can be overridden by Builds and BuildRuns, so Build Strategies' volumes support an overridable flag, which is a boolean, and is false by default. In case volume is not overridable, Build or BuildRun that tries to override it, will fail.

Build steps can declare a volumeMount, which allows them to access volumes defined by BuildStrategy, Build or BuildRun.

Here is an example of BuildStrategy object that defines volumes and volumeMounts:

apiVersion: shipwright.io/v1beta1
kind: BuildStrategy
metadata:
  name: buildah
spec:
  steps:
    - name: build
      image: quay.io/containers/buildah:v1.27.0
      workingDir: $(params.shp-source-root)
      command:
        - buildah
        - bud
        - --tls-verify=false
        - --layers
        - -f
        - $(params.dockerfile)
        - -t
        - $(params.shp-output-image)
        - $(params.shp-source-context)
      volumeMounts:
        - name: varlibcontainers
          mountPath: /var/lib/containers
  volumes:
    - name: varlibcontainers
      overridable: true
      emptyDir: {}
  # ...