Skip to main content
Version: 2.10 (deprecated)

Tagging Docker images

How to set registry, repository and tag names on your images

Configuring registries​

A docker_image target takes an optional registries field, whose value is a list of registry endpoints:

src/example/BUILD
docker_image(
    name="demo",
    registries=[
        "reg.company.internal",
    ]
)

Images built from this target will be published to these registries.

If you push many images to the same registries, and you don't want to repeat the endpoint information, you can name the registries in your pants.toml config file, and then refer to them by name in the target, using a @ prefix.

You can also designate one or more registries as the default for your repo, and images with no explicit registries field will use those default registries.

[docker.registries.company-registry1]
address = "reg1.company.internal"
default = true

[docker.registries.company-registry2]
address = "reg2.company.internal"

Setting a repository name​

In Docker parlance, an image is identified by a repository and one or more tags within that repository.

You set a repository name using the repository field on docker_image:

src/example/BUILD
docker_image(
    name="demo",
    repository="example/demo",
)
$ ./pants package src/example:demo
# Will build the image: example/demo:latest

You can also specify a default repository name in config, and this name can contain placeholders in curly braces that will be interpolated for each docker_image:

[docker]
default_repository = "{directory}/{name}"

The default placeholders are:

  • {directory}: The directory the docker_image's BUILD file is in.
  • {parent_directory}: The parent directory of {directory}.
  • {name}: The name of the docker_image target.
  • {build_args.ARG_NAME}: Each defined Docker build arg is available for interpolation under the build_args. prefix.

Since repository names often conform to patterns like these, this can save you on some boilerplate by allowing you to omit the repository field on each docker_image. But you can always override this field on specific docker_image targets, of course. In fact, you can use these placeholders in the repository field as well, if you find that helpful.

See String interpolation using placeholder values for more information.

Tagging images​

When Docker builds images, it can tag them with a set of tags. Pants will apply the tags listed in the image_tags field of docker_image.

(Note that the field is named image_tags and not just tags, because Pants has its own tags concept, which is unrelated.)

src/example/BUILD
docker_image(
    name="demo",
    repository="example/demo",
    image_tags=["1.2", "example"]
)

When pants builds the src/example:demo target, a single image will be built, with two tags applied:

  • example/demo:1.2
  • example/demo:example

It's often useful to keep versions of derived images and their base images in sync. Pants helps you out with this by interpolating tags referenced in FROM commands in your Dockerfile into the image_tags in the corresponding docker_image:

# These three are equivalent
docker_image(name="demo1", image_tags=["{tags.upstream}"])
docker_image(name="demo1", image_tags=["{tags.stage0}"])
# The first FROM may also be referred to as "baseimage"
docker_image(name="demo1", image_tags=["{tags.baseimage}"])

# Any stage my be used, and being a format string, you may add extra text as well.
docker_image(name="demo1", image_tags=["{tags.stage1}-custom-suffix"])

This way you can specify a version just once, on the base image, and the derived images will automatically acquire the same version.

You may also use any Docker build arguments (when configured as described in Docker build arguments) for interpolation into the image_tags in the corresponding docker_image:

src/example/BUILD
docker_image(image_tags=["{build_args.ARG_NAME}"])

Using env vars to include dynamic data in tags​

You can interpolate dynamic data, such as the current Git commit sha, in an image tag, using environment variables and Docker build args.

For example, you can declare a custom build arg, either in extra_build_args for a specific docker_image target, or for all docker_image targets in pants.toml:

# pants.toml
[docker]
build_args = ["GIT_COMMIT"]

and use this build arg in the image tag:

# src/example/BUILD
docker_image(name="demo", image_tags=["1.2-{build_args.GIT_COMMIT}"])

Then, if you run Pants with the data set in an environment variable of the same name:

$ GIT_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD) ./pants package src/example:demo

the value from the environment will be used.

Generating dynamic tags in a plugin

If you don't want to use the environment variable method described above, you'll need to write some custom plugin code. Don't hesitate to reach out for help with this.

We are looking into making some common dynamic data, such as the git sha, automatically available in the core Docker plugin in the future.

All together: Registries, Repositories and Tags​

To illustrate how all the above work together, this target:

src/example/BUILD
docker_image(
    name="demo",
    repository="example/demo",
    registries=["reg1", "reg2"],
    image_tags=["1.0", "latest"]
)

Will create a single image with these full names:

reg1/example/demo:1.0
reg1/example/demo:latest
reg2/example/demo:1.0
reg2/example/demo:latest

String interpolation using placeholder values​

As we've seen above, some fields of the docker_image support replacing placeholder values in curly braces with variable text, such as a build arg or base image tag for instance.

The interpolation context (the available placeholder values) depends on which field it is used in. These are the common values available for all fields:

  • {tags.<stage>}: The tag of a base image (the FROM instruction) for a particular stage in the Dockerfile. The <stage> is either stageN where N is the numeric index of the stage, starting at 0. The first stage, stage0, is also available under the pseudonym baseimage. If the stage is named (FROM image AS my_stage), then the tag value is also available under that name: {tags.my_stage}.
  • {build_args.ARG_NAME}: Each defined Docker build arg is available for interpolation under the build_args. prefix.
  • {pants.hash}: This is a unique hash value calculated from all input sources and the Dockerfile. It is effectively a hash of the Docker build context. See note below regarding its stability guarantee.

See Setting a repository name for placeholders specific to the repository field.

The {pants.hash} stability guarantee

The calculated hash value may change between stable versions of Pants for the otherwise same input sources.