Skip to content

Herokuish Buildpacks

New

Subcommands introduced in 0.15.0

buildpacks:set-property [--global|<app>] <key> <value>  # Set or clear a buildpacks property for an app

builder-herokuish:report [<app>] [<flag>]   # Displays a builder-herokuish report for one or more apps
builder-herokuish:set <app> <key> (<value>) # Set or clear a builder-herokuish property for an app

Warning

If using the buildpacks plugin, be sure to unset any BUILDPACK_URL and remove any such entries from a committed .env file. A specified BUILDPACK_URL will always override a .buildpacks file or the buildpacks plugin.

Dokku normally defaults to using Heroku buildpacks for deployment, though this may be overridden by committing a valid Dockerfile to the root of your repository and pushing the repository to your Dokku installation. To avoid this automatic Dockerfile deployment detection, you may do one of the following:

  • Set a BUILDPACK_URL environment variable
  • Create a .buildpacks file in the root of your repository.
    • This can be via a committed .buildpacks file or managed via the buildpacks plugin commands.

This page will cover usage of the buildpacks plugin.

Usage

Detection

This builder will be auto-detected in either the following cases:

  • The BUILDPACK_URL app environment variable is set.
  • A .buildpacks file exists in the root of the app repository.
    • This can be via a committed .buildpacks file or managed via the buildpacks plugin commands.

The builder can also be specified via the builder:set command:

dokku builder:set node-js-app selected herokuish

Info

Dokku will only select the dockerfile builder if both the herokuish and pack builders are not detected and a Dockerfile exists. See the dockerfile builder documentation for more information on how that builder functions.

Customizing the Buildpack stack builder

New

Introduced in 0.23.0

The default stack builder in use by Herokuish buildpacks in Dokku is based on gliderlabs/herokuish:latest. Typically, this is installed via an OS package which pulls the requisite Docker image. Users may desire to switch the stack builder to a custom version, either to update the operating system or to customize packages included with the stack builder. This can be performed via the buildpacks:set-property command.

dokku buildpacks:set-property node-js-app stack gliderlabs/herokuish:latest

The specified stack builder can also be unset by omitting the name of the stack builder when calling buildpacks:set-property.

dokku buildpacks:set-property node-js-app stack

A change in the stack builder value will execute the post-stack-set trigger.

Finally, stack builders can be set or unset globally as a fallback. This will take precedence over a globally set DOKKU_IMAGE environment variable (gliderlabs/herokuish:latest-24 by default).

# set globally
dokku buildpacks:set-property --global stack gliderlabs/herokuish:latest

# unset globally
dokku buildpacks:set-property --global stack

Allowing herokuish for non-amd64 platforms

New

Introduced in 0.29.0

By default, the builder-herokuish plugin is not enabled for non-amd64 platforms, and attempting to use it is blocked. This is because the majority of buildpacks are not cross-platform compatible, and thus building apps will either be considerably slower - due to emulating the amd64 platform - or won't work - due to building amd64 packages on arm64 platforms.

To force-enable herokuish on non-amd64 platforms, the allowed property can be set via builder-herokuish:set. The default value depends on the host platform architecture (true on amd64, false otherwise).

dokku builder-herokuish:set node-js-app allowed true

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option:

dokku builder-herokuish:set node-js-app allowed

The allowed property can also be set globally. The global default is platform-dependent, and the global value is used when no app-specific value is set.

dokku builder-herokuish:set --global allowed true

The default value may be set by passing an empty value for the option.

dokku builder-herokuish:set --global allowed

Displaying builder-herokuish reports for an app

New

Introduced in 0.29.0

You can get a report about the app's storage status using the builder-herokuish:report command:

dokku builder-herokuish:report

=====> node-js-app builder-herokuish information
       Builder herokuish computed allowed: false
       Builder herokuish global allowed:   true
       Builder herokuish allowed:          false
=====> python-sample builder-herokuish information
       Builder herokuish computed allowed: true
       Builder herokuish global allowed:   true
       Builder herokuish allowed:
=====> ruby-sample builder-herokuish information
       Builder herokuish computed allowed: true
       Builder herokuish global allowed:   true
       Builder herokuish allowed:

You can run the command for a specific app also.

dokku builder-herokuish:report node-js-app

=====> node-js-app builder-herokuish information
       Builder herokuish computed allowed: false
       Builder herokuish global allowed:   true
       Builder herokuish allowed:          false

You can pass flags which will output only the value of the specific information you want. For example:

dokku builder-herokuish:report node-js-app --builder-herokuish-allowed

false

Errata

Switching from Dockerfile deployments

If an application was previously deployed via Dockerfile, the following commands should be run before a buildpack deploy will succeed:

dokku ports:clear node-js-app

curl build timeouts

Certain buildpacks may time out in retrieving dependencies via curl. This can happen when your network connection is poor or if there is significant network congestion. You may see a message similar to gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file after a curl command.

If you see output similar this when deploying , you may need to override the curl timeouts to increase the length of time allotted to those tasks. You can do so via the config plugin:

dokku config:set --global CURL_TIMEOUT=1200
dokku config:set --global CURL_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=180

Clearing buildpack cache

See the repository management documentation for more information on how to clear buildpack build cache for an application.

Specifying commands via Procfile

See the Procfile documentation for more information on how to specify different processes for your app.

Listing Buildpacks in Use

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to list buildpacks in use.

Adding custom buildpacks

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to add custom buildpacks.

Overwriting a buildpack position

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to overwrite a buildpack position.

Removing a buildpack

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to remove a buildpack.

Clearing all buildpacks

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to clear all buildpacks.

Using a specific buildpack version

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to using a specific buildpack version

Displaying buildpack reports for an app

See the buildpack management documentation for more information on how to display buildpack reports for an app.