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Herokuish Buildpacks

New

Subcommands introduced in 0.15.0

buildpacks:add [--index 1] <app> <buildpack>            # Add new app buildpack while inserting into list of buildpacks if necessary
buildpacks:clear <app>                                  # Clear all buildpacks set on the app
buildpacks:list <app>                                   # List all buildpacks for an app
buildpacks:remove <app> <buildpack>                     # Remove a buildpack set on the app
buildpacks:report [<app>] [<flag>]                      # Displays a buildpack report for one or more apps
buildpacks:set [--index 1] <app> <buildpack>            # Set new app buildpack at a given position defaulting to the first buildpack if no index is specified
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.

Listing Buildpacks in Use

The buildpacks:list command can be used to show buildpacks that have been set for an app. This will omit any auto-detected buildpacks.

# running for an app with no buildpacks specified
dokku buildpacks:list node-js-app

-----> test buildpack urls

# running for an app with two buildpacks specified
dokku buildpacks:list node-js-app

-----> test buildpack urls
       https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-python.git
       https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git

Adding custom buildpacks

Info

Please check the documentation for your particular buildpack as you may need to include configuration files (such as a Procfile) in your project root.

To add a custom buildpack, use the buildpacks:add command:

dokku buildpacks:add node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git

When no buildpacks are currently specified, the specified buildpack will be the only one executed for detection and compilation.

Multiple buildpacks may be specified by using the buildpacks:add command multiple times.

dokku buildpacks:add node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-ruby.git
dokku buildpacks:add node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git

Buildpacks are executed in order, may be inserted at a specified index via the --index flag. This flag is specified starting at a 1-index value.

# will add the golang buildpack at the second position, bumping all proceeding ones by 1 position
dokku buildpacks:add --index 2 node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-golang.git

Overwriting a buildpack position

In some cases, it may be necessary to swap out a given buildpack. Rather than needing to re-specify each buildpack, the buildpacks:set command can be used to overwrite a buildpack at a given position.

dokku buildpacks:set node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-ruby.git

By default, this will overwrite the first buildpack specified. To specify an index, the --index flag may be used. This flag is specified starting at a 1-index value, and defaults to 1.

# the following are equivalent commands
dokku buildpacks:set node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-ruby.git
dokku buildpacks:set --index 1 node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-ruby.git

If the index specified is larger than the number of buildpacks currently configured, the buildpack will be appended to the end of the list.

dokku buildpacks:set --index 99 node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-ruby.git

Removing a buildpack

Info

At least one of a buildpack or index must be specified

A single buildpack can be removed by name via the buildpacks:remove command.

dokku buildpacks:remove node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-ruby.git

Buildpacks can also be removed by index via the --index flag. This flag is specified starting at a 1-index value.

dokku buildpacks:remove node-js-app --index 1

Clearing all buildpacks

Info

This does not affect automatically detected buildpacks, nor does it impact any specified BUILDPACK_URL environment variable.

The buildpacks:clear command can be used to clear all configured buildpacks for a specified app.

dokku buildpacks:clear node-js-app

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-22 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 buildpack reports for an app

You can get a report about the app's buildpacks status using the buildpacks:report command:

dokku buildpacks:report

=====> node-js-app buildpacks information
       Buildpacks computed stack:  gliderlabs/herokuish:v0.7.0-22
       Buildpacks global stack:    gliderlabs/herokuish:latest-22
       Buildpacks list:            https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git
       Buildpacks stack:           gliderlabs/herokuish:v0.7.0-20
=====> python-sample buildpacks information
       Buildpacks computed stack:  gliderlabs/herokuish:latest-22
       Buildpacks global stack:    gliderlabs/herokuish:latest-22
       Buildpacks list:            https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git,https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-python.git
       Buildpacks stack:
=====> ruby-sample buildpacks information
       Buildpacks computed stack:  gliderlabs/herokuish:latest-22
       Buildpacks global stack:    gliderlabs/herokuish:latest-22
       Buildpacks list:
       Buildpacks stack:

You can run the command for a specific app also.

dokku buildpacks:report node-js-app

=====> node-js-app buildpacks information
       Buildpacks list:               https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs.git

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

dokku buildpacks:report node-js-app --buildpacks-list

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

Using a specific buildpack version

Info

Always remember to pin your buildpack versions when using the multi-buildpacks method, or you may find deploys changing your deployed environment.

By default, Dokku uses the gliderlabs/herokuish project, which pins all of it's vendored buildpacks. There may be occasions where the pinned version results in a broken deploy, or does not have a particular feature that is required to build your project. To use a more recent version of a given buildpack, the buildpack may be specified without a Git commit SHA like so:

# using the latest nodejs buildpack
dokku buildpacks:set node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs

This will use the latest commit on the master branch of the specified buildpack. To pin to a newer version of a buildpack, a sha may also be specified by using the form REPOSITORY_URL#COMMIT_SHA, where COMMIT_SHA is any tree-ish git object - usually a git tag.

# using v87 of the nodejs buildpack
dokku buildpacks:set node-js-app https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs#v87

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.