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Nixpacks

New

Introduced in 0.32.0

The nixpacks builder builds apps via Nixpacks, a buildpack alternative.

Usage

Requirements

The nixpacks cli tool is not included by default with Dokku or as a dependency. It must also be installed as shown on this page.

Builds will proceed with the nixpacks cli for the app from then on.

Detection

This builder will be auto-detected in the following case:

  • A nixpacks.toml exists in the root of the app repository.

The builder may also be selected via the builder:set command

dokku builder:set node-js-app selected nixpacks

Supported languages

See the upstream nixpacks documentation for further information on what languages and frameworks are supported.

Build-time configuration variables

For security reasons - and as per Docker recommendations - nixpacks-based deploys have variables available only during runtime.

For users that require customization in the build phase, you may use build arguments via the docker-options plugin. All environment variables set by the config plugin are automatically exported within the nixpacks build environment, and thus --env only requires setting a key without a value.

dokku docker-options:add node-js-app build '--env NODE_ENV'

Alternatively, a full value may be provided in the form of --env KEY=VALUE:

dokku docker-options:add node-js-app build '--env NODE_ENV=production'

Changing the nixpacks.toml location

When deploying a monorepo, it may be desirable to specify the specific path of the nixpacks.toml file to use for a given app. This can be done via the builder-nixpacks:set command. If a value is specified and that file does not exist in the app's build directory, then the build will fail.

dokku builder-nixpacks:set node-js-app nixpackstoml-path nixpacks2.toml

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:set node-js-app nixpackstoml-path

The nixpackstoml-path property can also be set globally. The global default is nixpacks.toml, and the global value is used when no app-specific value is set.

dokku builder-nixpacks:set --global nixpackstoml-path nixpacks2.toml

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:set --global nixpackstoml-path

Disabling cache

Cache is enabled by default, but can be disabled by setting the no-cache property to true:

dokku builder-nixpacks:set node-js-app no-cache true

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:set node-js-app no-cache

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:set --global no-cache true

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:set --global no-cache

Displaying builder-nixpacks reports for an app

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:report

=====> node-js-app builder-nixpacks information
       Builder-nixpacks computed nixpackstoml path: nixpacks2.toml
       Builder-nixpacks global nixpackstoml path:   nixpacks.toml
       Builder-nixpacks nixpackstoml path:          nixpacks2.toml
       Builder-nixpacks computed no cache:          true
       Builder-nixpacks global no cache:            false
       Builder-nixpacks no cache:                   true
=====> python-sample builder-nixpacks information
       Builder-nixpacks computed nixpackstoml path: nixpacks.toml
       Builder-nixpacks global nixpackstoml path:   nixpacks.toml
       Builder-nixpacks nixpackstoml path:
       Builder-nixpacks computed no cache:          false
       Builder-nixpacks global no cache:            false
       Builder-nixpacks no cache:
=====> ruby-sample builder-nixpacks information
       Builder-nixpacks computed nixpackstoml path: nixpacks.toml
       Builder-nixpacks global nixpackstoml path:   nixpacks.toml
       Builder-nixpacks nixpackstoml path:
       Builder-nixpacks computed no cache:          false
       Builder-nixpacks global no cache:            false
       Builder-nixpacks no cache:

You can run the command for a specific app also.

dokku builder-nixpacks:report node-js-app

=====> node-js-app builder-nixpacks information
       Builder-nixpacks computed nixpackstoml path: nixpacks2.toml
       Builder-nixpacks global nixpackstoml path:   nixpacks.toml
       Builder-nixpacks nixpackstoml path:          nixpacks2.toml
       Builder-nixpacks computed no cache:          true
       Builder-nixpacks global no cache:            false
       Builder-nixpacks no cache:                   true

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

dokku builder-nixpacks:report node-js-app --builder-nixpacks-no-cache

true