Machinefile

A simple executor that allows you to run Dockerfile/Containerfile commands directly on the host system without using Docker, Podman or any other container engine. It's useful for executing build commands in a predictable environment or setting up development tools. The Machinefile executor tool parses the Dockerfile and executes the commands on the local or remote host system.

Supported commands

The executor supports the followuing Dockerfile commands:

• RUN: Execute commands
• COPY: Copy files from context to a specific location
• ADD: Similar to COPY, but with additional features
• USER: Switch to different user
• ENV: Set environment variables
• ARG: Define build-time variables

Usage

Note

This should ideally be run as root.

$ ./machinefile test/Machinefile [context]

To target a remote machine, you have to set up remote keys:

$ ./machinefile -host dotfedora -user root test/Machinefile [context]

or

$ ./machinefile root@dotfedora test/Machinefile

Passing arguments

# Single ARG
./machinefile --arg=USER="runner" test/Machinefile [context]

# Multiple ARGs
./machinefile --arg=USER="runner" --arg=VERSION="1.0" test/Machinefile [context]

# ARGs without quotes (if value doesn't contain spaces)
./machinefile --arg=USER=runner test/Machinefile [context]

Shebang usage

If a Containerfile uses the following shebang option:

Machinefile

#!/bin/env -S machinefile --stdin
FROM ...

RUN ...

it is possible to execute the file directly

$ ./Machinefile root@dotfedora --arg USER=gbraad [context]

GitHub Action

To incorporate this in your build process, you can use the Machinfile executor GitHub Action.

    - name: Run Dockerfile commands
      uses: gbraad-actions/machinefile-executor-action@v1
      with:
        containerfile: 'containers/Containerfile-devtools'
        context: '.'
        arguments: --arg=USER=gbraad

Development

Author

@gbraad