The build environment determines which software is available when running build tasks.

Cloud Native Build uses Docker containers as the build environment.

Compared to traditional virtual machine containers, Docker containers have significant advantages, and industry CI vendors are moving in this direction.

When using Cloud Native Build, ensure you have experience with Docker containers, or at least understand basic Docker concepts.

Configuration Methods

There are two ways to configure Docker containers:

1. Specify an image (pre-built image). These images were previously created by others and pushed to image repositories.
2. Specify a Dockerfile. At build start, Cloud Native Build will create an image from the Dockerfile (using cache under certain conditions).

Specifying an Image

main:
  push:
    - docker:
        # Use this parameter to control the image
        image: node:22
      stages:
        - stage1
        - stage2
        - stage3

Use the pipeline.docker.image parameter to specify the Docker Image. The value can be a public image from official sources or other accessible image repositories.

Specifying a Dockerfile

main:
  push:
    - docker:
        # Use this parameter to control the Dockerfile
        build: ./image/Dockerfile
      stages:
        - stage1
        - stage2
        - stage3

Use the pipeline.docker.build parameter to specify the Dockerfile.

Default Image

When neither image nor Dockerfile is specified, the image will be set to the default image: cnbcool/default-build-env.

main:
  push:
    - stages:
        - stage1
        - stage2
        - stage3
      # Not specifying image and Dockerfile is equivalent to the following declaration
      # docker:
      # image: cnbcool/default-build-env

VOLUME in Images

Images may contain VOLUME commands. When starting plugin tasks, these volumes will be shared with the plugin tasks via the --volumes-from parameter.

For example, preparing files in Dockerfile:

RUN mkdir /cache && echo 'hello world' > /cache/data.txt

VOLUME /cache

These can also be accessed in subsequent image-commands.

- name: Access pipeline volume in image-commands
  image: alpine
  commands:
    - cat /cache/data.txt

Usage Examples

NodeJS

When needing a NodeJS build environment, you can directly use the official NodeJS image from Docker Hub.

main:
  push:
    - docker:
        image: node:20
      stages:
        - name: Install dependencies
          script: npm install
        - name: Run tests
          script: npm test