werf

README

___

Werf is an Open Source CLI tool written in Golang to implement your application delivery fast & easy. To benefit from it, you just need to describe your application's configuration (how to build it and deploy it into Kubernetes) in a Git repo acting as the single source of truth. In short, that's what we call GitOps today.

• Werf builds Docker images using Dockerfiles or alternative fast builder based on the custom syntax. It also cleans Docker Registry from unused images.
• Werf deploys your application into Kubernetes using a chart in Helm-compatible format with handy customizations and improved deploy tracking, errors detection and output.

While werf is not a complete CI/CD system itself, it is a tool that can be embedded into any existing CI/CD system literally "connecting the dots" to implement these practices for your application. We consider it a new generation of high-level CI/CD tools.

Contents

• Features
• Installation
  • Install Dependencies
  • Install Werf
• Backward Compatibility Promise
• Docs and Support
• License

Features

• Complete application lifecycle management: build and publish images, deploy application into Kubernetes and cleanup unused images by policies.
• Application build and deploy specification (as many components as needed) completely described in one git repository with source code (single source of truth).
• Build images with Dockerfiles.
• Alternatively, build images with custom syntax to take advantage of Ansible builder and incremental rebuilds based on git history.
• Helm 2 compatible chart and complex deploy process with logging, tracking, early errors detection and annotations to customize tracking logic of specific resources.
• Werf is a CLI tool written in Golang which can be embedded into any existing CI/CD system to implement CI/CD for your application.

Coming soon

• 3-way-merge #1616.
• Content based tagging #1184.
• Distributed builds with common registry #1614.

Complete features list

Building

• Conveniently build as many images as needed for a single project.
• Building images by Dockerfile or Stapel builder instructions.
• Parallel builds on a single host (using file locks).
• Distributed builds (coming soon) #1614.
• Advanced build with Stapel:
  • Incremental rebuilds based on git history.
  • Building images with Ansible tasks or Shell scripts.
  • Sharing a common cache between builds using mounts.
  • Reducing image size by detaching source data and build tools.
• Building one image from config on the top of another image from the same config.
• Debug tools for build process inspection.
• Detailed output.

Publishing

• Store images in one or several Docker repositories by the following patterns:
  • IMAGES_REPO:[IMAGE_NAME-]TAG using monorepo mode.
  • IMAGES_REPO[/IMAGE_NAME]:TAG using multirepo mode.
• Different image tagging strategies:
  • Tag image by git tag, branch or commit.
  • Content based tagging (coming soon) #1184.

Deploy

• Deploy an application into Kubernetes and check that application is deployed correctly.
  • Track all application resources status.
  • Control of resources readiness.
  • Control of the deployment process with annotations.
• Full visibility both of the deploy process and of the final result.
  • Logging and error reporting.
  • Periodical status reports during deploy process.
  • Easy debugging of problems without unnecessary kubectl invocations.
• Fail CI pipeline fast when problem detected.
  • Early resources failures detection during deploy process without need to wait full timeout.
• Full compatibility with Helm 2.
• Ability to limit deploy user access using RBAC definition (Tiller is compiled into Werf and run from the deploy user outside of cluster).
• Parallel deploys on a single host (using file locks).
• Distributed parallel deploys (coming soon) #1620.
• Allow continuous delivery of new images tagged by the same name (by git branch for example).

Cleanup

• Local and Docker registry cleaning by customizable policies.
• Keeping images that used in Kubernetes clusters. Werf scans the following kinds of objects: Pod, Deployment, ReplicaSet, StatefulSet, DaemonSet, Job, CronJob, ReplicationController.

Installation

Install Dependencies

Docker

Docker CE installation guide.

Manage Docker as a non-root user. Create the docker group and add your user to the group:

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Git command line utility

Git installation guide.

• Minimal required version is 1.9.0.
• To optionally use Git Submodules minimal version is 2.14.0.

Install Werf

Method 1 (recommended): using Multiwerf

Multiwerf is a version manager for Werf, which:

• downloads Werf binary builds;
• manages multiple versions of binaries installed on a single host, that can be used at the same time;
• automatically updates Werf binary (can be disabled).

# add ~/bin into PATH
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
exec bash

# install multiwerf into ~/bin directory
mkdir -p ~/bin
cd ~/bin
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flant/multiwerf/master/get.sh | bash
source <(multiwerf use 1.0 beta)

Method 2: download binary

The latest release can be reached via this page

MacOS

curl -L https://dl.bintray.com/flant/werf/v1.0.3-beta.9/werf-darwin-amd64-v1.0.3-beta.9 -o /tmp/werf
chmod +x /tmp/werf
sudo mv /tmp/werf /usr/local/bin/werf

Linux

curl -L https://dl.bintray.com/flant/werf/v1.0.3-beta.9/werf-linux-amd64-v1.0.3-beta.9 -o /tmp/werf
chmod +x /tmp/werf
sudo mv /tmp/werf /usr/local/bin/werf

Windows

Download werf.exe

Method 3: from source

go get github.com/flant/werf/cmd/werf

Backward Compatibility Promise

Note: This promise was introduced with Werf 1.0 and does not apply to previous versions or to dapp releases.

Werf is versioned with Semantic Versioning. This means that major releases (1.0, 2.0) are allowed to break backward compatibility. In case of Werf this means that update to the next major release may require to do a full re-deploy of applications or to perform other non-scriptable actions.

Minor releases (1.1, 1.2, etc.) may introduce new "big" features, but must do so without significant backward compatibility breaks with major branch (1.x). In case of Werf this means that update to the next minor release is mostly smooth, but may require to run a provided upgrade script.

Patch releases (1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2) may introduce new features, but must do so without breaking backward compatibility with minor branch (1.1.x). In case of Werf this means that update to the next patch release should be smooth and can be done automatically.

Patch releases are divided to channels. Channel is a prefix in a prerelease part of version (1.1.0-alpha.2, 1.1.0-beta.3, 1.1.0-ea.1). Version without prerelease part is considered to be from a stable channel.

• stable channel (1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, etc.). This is a general available version and recommended for usage in critical environments with tight SLA. We guarantee backward compatibility between stable releases within minor branch (1.1.x).
• ea channel versions are mostly safe to use and we encourage to use this version everywhere. We guarantee backward compatibility between ea releases within minor branch (1.1.x). We guarantee that ea release should become a stable release not earlier than 2 weeks of broad testing.
• rc channel (2.3.2-rc.2). These releases are mostly safe to use and can even be used in non critical environments or for local development. We do not guarantee backward compatibility between rc releases. We guarantee that rc release should become ea not earlier than 1 week after internal tests.
• beta channel (1.2.2-beta.0). These releases are for more broad testing of new features to catch regressions. We do not guarantee backward compatibility between beta releases.
• alpha channel (1.2.2-alpha.12, 2.0.0-alpha.5, etc.). These releases can bring new features, but are unstable. We do not guarantee backward compatibility between alpha releases.

Docs and support

Make your first Werf application or plunge into the complete documentation.

Werf’s developers are always in contact with community though Slack and Telegram. Join us!

• English-speaking community in CNCF Slack channel #werf
• Russian community in Telegram Chat #werf_ru

Your issues are processed carefully if posted to issues at GitHub

License

Apache License 2.0, see LICENSE