Start9 Docs Developer Docs Specification Dockerfile

Dockerfile¶

This purpose of the Dockerfile is to define how to build the image for the service. It declares the environment and building stages.

The Dockerfile is responsible for mounting the service application to whatever volume the manifest specifies, typically /root/.<service-id>.

Since the build requires specific arm runtime environments, these base images can be imported into the Dockerfile as a starting point so the base system does not need to be completely redefined. This enables importing a specific build environment version that encapsulates any necessary libraries for running the service build, eg. golang, rust.

For instance:

FROM alpine:3.12

FROM arm32v7/alpine

FROM arm32v7/golang:alpine

We recommended using alpine since it produces the smallest image. We try to keep the image under 100MB when possible.

Image¶

Each service boils down to a Docker image. We’re not going to dive into Docker specifics in this guide, since there exists tons of resources for developing with this containerization tool.

The image is immutable, meaning that when the service is updated, the image is replaced with a completely new image containing the updated features.

When installed, the service image is mounted to the StartOS image. This path is defined in the manifest configuration file:

...
main:
    type: docker
    image: main
    entrypoint: "docker_entrypoint.sh"
    args: []
    mounts:
        # Specified where to mount the volume in the container
        main: /root
    io-format: yaml
...

In StartOS, the mount specified in the Manifest gets bound to /embassy-data/package-data/volumes/main/<service-id>.

Volumes¶

Volumes are the mechanism for persisting data generated by and used by Docker containers. In StartOS, services can declare as one or many volumes in the Manifest:

volumes:
    # This key correlates to the image name specified above. The default is "main".
    main:
        type: data

Volume Types¶

data - A volume to persist application data. All service application data is stored in this directory and is persisted across updates.
assets - A volume to store miscellaneous assets that do not need to be in the main image.

If an asset volume is specified, there must exist a folder entitled assets, and a subfolder entitled the name of the asset volume:

:emphazize-lines: 9,10,11,16,17

    properties:
        type: docker
        image: compat
        system: true
        entrypoint: compat
        args:
            - properties
            - /root
        mounts:
            main: /root
            compat: /mnt/assets

    volumes:
        # This is the image where files from the project asset directory will go
        main:
            type: data
        compat:
            type: assets

    # required project folder structure
    ├── assets
    │   └── compat

Warning

Any files in the mounted volume path will be overwritten when a backup restore occurs.

Entrypoint¶

The docker_entrypoint.sh defines what to do when the service application starts.

It consists of a bash script that completes any environment setup (eg. creating folder substructure), sets any environment variables, and executes the run command. The only required feature of this file is to execute the run command for the service.

Example¶

The LND wrapper features a well defined Dockerfile, for example.