docker buildx build

Start a build

Usage

docker buildx build [OPTIONS] PATH | URL | -

Description

The buildx build command starts a build using BuildKit. This command is similar to the UI of docker build command and takes the same flags and arguments.

For documentation on most of these flags, refer to the docker build documentation. This page describes a subset of the new flags.

Options

Examples

Create annotations (--annotation)

--annotation="key=value"
--annotation="[type:]key=value"

Add OCI annotations to the image index, manifest, or descriptor. The following example adds the foo=bar annotation to the image manifests:

$ docker buildx build -t TAG --annotation "foo=bar" --push .

You can optionally add a type prefix to specify the level of the annotation. By default, the image manifest is annotated. The following example adds the foo=bar annotation the image index instead of the manifests:

$ docker buildx build -t TAG --annotation "index:foo=bar" --push .

You can specify multiple types, separated by a comma (,) to add the annotation to multiple image components. The following example adds the foo=bar annotation to image index, descriptors, manifests:

$ docker buildx build -t TAG --annotation "index,manifest,manifest-descriptor:foo=bar" --push .

You can also specify a platform qualifier in square brackets ([os/arch]) in the type prefix, to apply the annotation to a subset of manifests with the matching platform. The following example adds the foo=bar annotation only to the manifest with the linux/amd64 platform:

$ docker buildx build -t TAG --annotation "manifest[linux/amd64]:foo=bar" --push .

Wildcards are not supported in the platform qualifier; you can't specify a type prefix like manifest[linux/*] to add annotations only to manifests which has linux as the OS platform.

For more information about annotations, see Annotations.

Create attestations (--attest)

--attest=type=sbom,...
--attest=type=provenance,...

Create image attestations. BuildKit currently supports:

• sbom - Software Bill of Materials.

  Use --attest=type=sbom to generate an SBOM for an image at build-time. Alternatively, you can use the --sbom shorthand.

  For more information, see here.

• provenance - SLSA Provenance

  Use --attest=type=provenance to generate provenance for an image at build-time. Alternatively, you can use the --provenance shorthand.

  By default, a minimal provenance attestation will be created for the build result, which will only be attached for images pushed to registries.

  For more information, see here.

Allow extra privileged entitlement (--allow)

--allow=ENTITLEMENT

Allow extra privileged entitlement. List of entitlements:

• network.host - Allows executions with host networking.
• security.insecure - Allows executions without sandbox. See related Dockerfile extensions.

For entitlements to be enabled, the buildkitd daemon also needs to allow them with --allow-insecure-entitlement (see create --buildkitd-flags).

$ docker buildx create --use --name insecure-builder --buildkitd-flags '--allow-insecure-entitlement security.insecure'
$ docker buildx build --allow security.insecure .

Set build-time variables (--build-arg)

Same as docker build command.

There are also useful built-in build arguments, such as:

• BUILDKIT_CONTEXT_KEEP_GIT_DIR=<bool>: trigger git context to keep the .git directory
• BUILDKIT_INLINE_CACHE=<bool>: inline cache metadata to image config or not
• BUILDKIT_MULTI_PLATFORM=<bool>: opt into deterministic output regardless of multi-platform output or not

$ docker buildx build --build-arg BUILDKIT_MULTI_PLATFORM=1 .

Learn more about the built-in build arguments in the Dockerfile reference docs.

Additional build contexts (--build-context)

--build-context=name=VALUE

Define additional build context with specified contents. In Dockerfile the context can be accessed when FROM name or --from=name is used. When Dockerfile defines a stage with the same name it is overwritten.

The value can be a local source directory, local OCI layout compliant directory, container image (with docker-image:// prefix), Git or HTTP URL.

Replace alpine:latest with a pinned one:

$ docker buildx build --build-context alpine=docker-image://alpine@sha256:0123456789 .

Expose a secondary local source directory:

$ docker buildx build --build-context project=path/to/project/source .
# docker buildx build --build-context project=https://github.com/myuser/project.git .

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM alpine
COPY --from=project myfile /

Use an OCI layout directory as build context

Source an image from a local OCI layout compliant directory, either by tag, or by digest:

$ docker buildx build --build-context foo=oci-layout:///path/to/local/layout:<tag>
$ docker buildx build --build-context foo=oci-layout:///path/to/local/layout@sha256:<digest>

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM alpine
RUN apk add git
COPY --from=foo myfile /

FROM foo

The OCI layout directory must be compliant with the OCI layout specification. You can reference an image in the layout using either tags, or the exact digest.

Override the configured builder instance (--builder)

Same as buildx --builder.

Use an external cache source for a build (--cache-from)

--cache-from=[NAME|type=TYPE[,KEY=VALUE]]

Use an external cache source for a build. Supported types are registry, local, gha and s3.

• registry source can import cache from a cache manifest or (special) image configuration on the registry.
• local source can import cache from local files previously exported with --cache-to.
• gha source can import cache from a previously exported cache with --cache-to in your GitHub repository
• s3 source can import cache from a previously exported cache with --cache-to in your S3 bucket

If no type is specified, registry exporter is used with a specified reference.

docker driver currently only supports importing build cache from the registry.

$ docker buildx build --cache-from=user/app:cache .
$ docker buildx build --cache-from=user/app .
$ docker buildx build --cache-from=type=registry,ref=user/app .
$ docker buildx build --cache-from=type=local,src=path/to/cache .
$ docker buildx build --cache-from=type=gha .
$ docker buildx build --cache-from=type=s3,region=eu-west-1,bucket=mybucket .

More info about cache exporters and available attributes: https://github.com/moby/buildkit#export-cache

Export build cache to an external cache destination (--cache-to)

--cache-to=[NAME|type=TYPE[,KEY=VALUE]]

Export build cache to an external cache destination. Supported types are registry, local, inline, gha and s3.

• registry type exports build cache to a cache manifest in the registry.
• local type exports cache to a local directory on the client.
• inline type writes the cache metadata into the image configuration.
• gha type exports cache through the GitHub Actions Cache service API.
• s3 type exports cache to a S3 bucket.

The docker driver only supports cache exports using the inline and local cache backends.

Attribute key:

• mode - Specifies how many layers are exported with the cache. min on only exports layers already in the final build stage, max exports layers for all stages. Metadata is always exported for the whole build.

$ docker buildx build --cache-to=user/app:cache .
$ docker buildx build --cache-to=type=inline .
$ docker buildx build --cache-to=type=registry,ref=user/app .
$ docker buildx build --cache-to=type=local,dest=path/to/cache .
$ docker buildx build --cache-to=type=gha .
$ docker buildx build --cache-to=type=s3,region=eu-west-1,bucket=mybucket .

More info about cache exporters and available attributes: https://github.com/moby/buildkit#export-cache

Load the single-platform build result to docker images (--load)

Shorthand for --output=type=docker. Will automatically load the single-platform build result to docker images.

Write build result metadata to the file (--metadata-file)

To output build metadata such as the image digest, pass the --metadata-file flag. The metadata will be written as a JSON object to the specified file. The directory of the specified file must already exist and be writable.

$ docker buildx build --load --metadata-file metadata.json .
$ cat metadata.json

{
  "containerimage.config.digest": "sha256:2937f66a9722f7f4a2df583de2f8cb97fc9196059a410e7f00072fc918930e66",
  "containerimage.descriptor": {
    "annotations": {
      "config.digest": "sha256:2937f66a9722f7f4a2df583de2f8cb97fc9196059a410e7f00072fc918930e66",
      "org.opencontainers.image.created": "2022-02-08T21:28:03Z"
    },
    "digest": "sha256:19ffeab6f8bc9293ac2c3fdf94ebe28396254c993aea0b5a542cfb02e0883fa3",
    "mediaType": "application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json",
    "size": 506
  },
  "containerimage.digest": "sha256:19ffeab6f8bc9293ac2c3fdf94ebe28396254c993aea0b5a542cfb02e0883fa3"
}

Set the export action for the build result (-o, --output)

-o, --output=[PATH,-,type=TYPE[,KEY=VALUE]

Sets the export action for the build result. In docker build all builds finish by creating a container image and exporting it to docker images. buildx makes this step configurable allowing results to be exported directly to the client, OCI image tarballs, registry etc.

Buildx with docker driver currently only supports local, tarball exporter and image exporter. docker-container driver supports all the exporters.

If just the path is specified as a value, buildx will use the local exporter with this path as the destination. If the value is "-", buildx will use tar exporter and write to stdout.

$ docker buildx build -o . .
$ docker buildx build -o outdir .
$ docker buildx build -o - - > out.tar
$ docker buildx build -o type=docker .
$ docker buildx build -o type=docker,dest=- . > myimage.tar
$ docker buildx build -t tonistiigi/foo -o type=registry

Supported exported types are:

local

The local export type writes all result files to a directory on the client. The new files will be owned by the current user. On multi-platform builds, all results will be put in subdirectories by their platform.

Attribute key:

• dest - destination directory where files will be written

tar

The tar export type writes all result files as a single tarball on the client. On multi-platform builds all results will be put in subdirectories by their platform.

Attribute key:

• dest - destination path where tarball will be written. “-” writes to stdout.

oci

The oci export type writes the result image or manifest list as an OCI image layout tarball on the client.

Attribute key:

• dest - destination path where tarball will be written. “-” writes to stdout.

docker

The docker export type writes the single-platform result image as a Docker image specification tarball on the client. Tarballs created by this exporter are also OCI compatible.

The default image store in Docker Engine doesn't support loading multi-platform images. You can enable the containerd image store, or push multi-platform images is to directly push to a registry, see registry.

Attribute keys:

• dest - destination path where tarball will be written. If not specified, the tar will be loaded automatically to the local image store.
• context - name for the Docker context where to import the result

image

The image exporter writes the build result as an image or a manifest list. When using docker driver the image will appear in docker images. Optionally, image can be automatically pushed to a registry by specifying attributes.

Attribute keys:

• name - name (references) for the new image.
• push - Boolean to automatically push the image.

registry

The registry exporter is a shortcut for type=image,push=true.

Set the target platforms for the build (--platform)

--platform=value[,value]

Set the target platform for the build. All FROM commands inside the Dockerfile without their own --platform flag will pull base images for this platform and this value will also be the platform of the resulting image.

The default value is the platform of the BuildKit daemon where the build runs. The value takes the form of os/arch or os/arch/variant. For example, linux/amd64 or linux/arm/v7. Additionally, the --platform flag also supports a special local value, which tells BuildKit to use the platform of the BuildKit client that invokes the build.

When using docker-container driver with buildx, this flag can accept multiple values as an input separated by a comma. With multiple values the result will be built for all of the specified platforms and joined together into a single manifest list.

If the Dockerfile needs to invoke the RUN command, the builder needs runtime support for the specified platform. In a clean setup, you can only execute RUN commands for your system architecture. If your kernel supports binfmt_misc launchers for secondary architectures, buildx will pick them up automatically. Docker desktop releases come with binfmt_misc automatically configured for arm64 and arm architectures. You can see what runtime platforms your current builder instance supports by running docker buildx inspect --bootstrap.

Inside a Dockerfile, you can access the current platform value through TARGETPLATFORM build argument. Refer to the docker build documentation for the full description of automatic platform argument variants .

You can find the formatting definition for the platform specifier in the containerd source code.

$ docker buildx build --platform=linux/arm64 .
$ docker buildx build --platform=linux/amd64,linux/arm64,linux/arm/v7 .
$ docker buildx build --platform=darwin .

Set type of progress output (--progress)

--progress=VALUE

Set type of progress output (auto, plain, tty). Use plain to show container output (default "auto").

Note

You can also use the BUILDKIT_PROGRESS environment variable to set its value.

The following example uses plain output during the build:

$ docker buildx build --load --progress=plain .

#1 [internal] load build definition from Dockerfile
#1 transferring dockerfile: 227B 0.0s done
#1 DONE 0.1s

#2 [internal] load .dockerignore
#2 transferring context: 129B 0.0s done
#2 DONE 0.0s
...

Note

Check also our Color output controls guide for modifying the colors that are used to output information to the terminal.

Create provenance attestations (--provenance)

Shorthand for --attest=type=provenance, used to configure provenance attestations for the build result. For example, --provenance=mode=max can be used as an abbreviation for --attest=type=provenance,mode=max.

Additionally, --provenance can be used with Boolean values to enable or disable provenance attestations. For example, --provenance=false disables all provenance attestations, while --provenance=true enables all provenance attestations.

By default, a minimal provenance attestation will be created for the build result. Note that the default image store in Docker Engine doesn't support attestations. Provenance attestations only persist for images pushed directly to a registry if you use the default image store. Alternatively, you can switch to using the containerd image store.

For more information about provenance attestations, see here.

Push the build result to a registry (--push)

Shorthand for --output=type=registry. Will automatically push the build result to registry.

Create SBOM attestations (--sbom)

Shorthand for --attest=type=sbom, used to configure SBOM attestations for the build result. For example, --sbom=generator=<user>/<generator-image> can be used as an abbreviation for --attest=type=sbom,generator=<user>/<generator-image>.

Additionally, --sbom can be used with Boolean values to enable or disable SBOM attestations. For example, --sbom=false disables all SBOM attestations.

Note that the default image store in Docker Engine doesn't support attestations. Provenance attestations only persist for images pushed directly to a registry if you use the default image store. Alternatively, you can switch to using the containerd image store.

For more information, see here.

Secret to expose to the build (--secret)

--secret=[type=TYPE[,KEY=VALUE]

Exposes secret to the build. The secret can be used by the build using RUN --mount=type=secret mount.

If type is unset it will be detected. Supported types are:

file

Attribute keys:

• id - ID of the secret. Defaults to base name of the src path.
• src, source - Secret filename. id used if unset.

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM python:3
RUN pip install awscli
RUN --mount=type=secret,id=aws,target=/root/.aws/credentials \
  aws s3 cp s3://... ...

$ docker buildx build --secret id=aws,src=$HOME/.aws/credentials .

env

Attribute keys:

• id - ID of the secret. Defaults to env name.
• env - Secret environment variable. id used if unset, otherwise will look for src, source if id unset.

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM node:alpine
RUN --mount=type=bind,target=. \
  --mount=type=secret,id=SECRET_TOKEN \
  SECRET_TOKEN=$(cat /run/secrets/SECRET_TOKEN) yarn run test

$ SECRET_TOKEN=token docker buildx build --secret id=SECRET_TOKEN .

Size of /dev/shm (--shm-size)

The format is <number><unit>. number must be greater than 0. Unit is optional and can be b (bytes), k (kilobytes), m (megabytes), or g (gigabytes). If you omit the unit, the system uses bytes.

SSH agent socket or keys to expose to the build (--ssh)

--ssh=default|<id>[=<socket>|<key>[,<key>]]

This can be useful when some commands in your Dockerfile need specific SSH authentication (e.g., cloning a private repository).

--ssh exposes SSH agent socket or keys to the build and can be used with the RUN --mount=type=ssh mount.

Example to access Gitlab using an SSH agent socket:

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM alpine
RUN apk add --no-cache openssh-client
RUN mkdir -p -m 0700 ~/.ssh && ssh-keyscan gitlab.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
RUN --mount=type=ssh ssh -q -T git@gitlab.com 2>&1 | tee /hello
# "Welcome to GitLab, @GITLAB_USERNAME_ASSOCIATED_WITH_SSHKEY" should be printed here
# with the type of build progress is defined as `plain`.

$ eval $(ssh-agent)
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
(Input your passphrase here)
$ docker buildx build --ssh default=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK .

Set ulimits (--ulimit)

--ulimit is specified with a soft and hard limit as such: <type>=<soft limit>[:<hard limit>], for example:

$ docker buildx build --ulimit nofile=1024:1024 .

Note

If you don't provide a hard limit, the soft limit is used for both values. If no ulimits are set, they're inherited from the default ulimits set on the daemon.