exec Build

Description

A simple Build action which runs a build locally with a shell command.

Below is the full schema reference for the action. For an introduction to configuring Garden, please look at our Configuration guide.

exec actions also export values that are available in template strings. See the Outputs section below for details.

Configuration Keys

type

The type of action, e.g. exec, container or kubernetes. Some are built into Garden but mostly these will be defined by your configured providers.

Type	Required
string	Yes

name

A valid name for the action. Must be unique across all actions of the same kind in your project.

Type	Required
string	Yes

description

A description of the action.

Type	Required
string	No

source

By default, the directory where the action is defined is used as the source for the build context.

You can override this by setting either source.path to another (POSIX-style) path relative to the action source directory, or source.repository to get the source from an external repository.

If using source.path, you must make sure the target path is in a git repository.

For source.repository behavior, please refer to the Remote Sources guide.

Type	Required
object	No

source.path

source > path

A relative POSIX-style path to the source directory for this action. You must make sure this path exists and is in a git repository!

Type	Required
posixPath	No

source.repository

source > repository

When set, Garden will import the action source from this repository, but use this action configuration (and not scan for configs in the separate repository).

Type	Required
object	No

source.repository.url

source > repository > url

A remote repository URL. Currently only supports git servers. Must contain a hash suffix pointing to a specific branch or tag, with the format: #<branch|tag>

Type	Required
gitUrl | string	Yes

Example:

source:
  ...
  repository:
    ...
    url: "git+https://github.com/org/repo.git#v2.0"

dependencies[]

A list of other actions that this action depends on, and should be built, deployed or run (depending on the action type) before processing this action.

Each dependency should generally be expressed as a "<kind>.<name>" string, where is one of build, deploy, run or test, and is the name of the action to depend on.

You may also optionally specify a dependency as an object, e.g. { kind: "Build", name: "some-image" }.

Any empty values (i.e. null or empty strings) are ignored, so that you can conditionally add in a dependency via template expressions.

Type	Default	Required
array[actionReference]	[]	No

Example:

dependencies:
  - build.my-image
  - deploy.api

disabled

Set this to true to disable the action. You can use this with conditional template strings to disable actions based on, for example, the current environment or other variables (e.g. disabled: ${environment.name == "prod"}). This can be handy when you only need certain actions for specific environments, e.g. only for development.

For Build actions, this means the build is not performed unless it is declared as a dependency by another enabled action (in which case the Build is assumed to be necessary for the dependant action to be run or built).

For other action kinds, the action is skipped in all scenarios, and dependency declarations to it are ignored. Note however that template strings referencing outputs (i.e. runtime outputs) will fail to resolve when the action is disabled, so you need to make sure to provide alternate values for those if you're using them, using conditional expressions.

Type	Default	Required
boolean	false	No

environments[]

If set, the action is only enabled for the listed environment types. This is effectively a cleaner shorthand for the disabled field with an expression for environments. For example, environments: ["prod"] is equivalent to disabled: ${environment.name != "prod"}.

Type	Required
array[string]	No

variables

A map of variables scoped to this particular action. These are resolved before any other parts of the action configuration and take precedence over group-scoped variables (if applicable) and project-scoped variables, in that order. They may reference group-scoped and project-scoped variables, and generally can use any template strings normally allowed when resolving the action.

Type	Required
object	No

varfiles[]

Specify a list of paths (relative to the directory where the action is defined) to a file containing variables, that we apply on top of the action-level variables field, and take precedence over group-level variables (if applicable) and project-level variables, in that order.

If you specify multiple paths, they are merged in the order specified, i.e. the last one takes precedence over the previous ones.

The format of the files is determined by the configured file's extension:

• .yaml/.yml - YAML. The file must consist of a YAML document, which must be a map (dictionary). Keys may contain any value type. YAML format is used by default.

• .env - Standard "dotenv" format, as defined by dotenv.

• .json - JSON. Must contain a single JSON object (not an array).

NOTE: The default varfile format was changed to YAML in Garden v0.13, since YAML allows for definition of nested objects and arrays.

To use different varfiles in different environments, you can template in the environment name to the varfile name, e.g. varfile: "my-action.${environment.name}.env" (this assumes that the corresponding varfiles exist).

If a listed varfile cannot be found, throwing an error. To add optional varfiles, you can use a list item object with a path and an optional optional boolean field.

varfiles:
  - path: my-action.env
    optional: true

Type	Default	Required
array[alternatives]	[]	No

Example:

varfiles:
  "my-action.env"

varfiles[].path

varfiles > path

Path to a file containing a path.

Type	Required
posixPath	Yes

varfiles[].optional

varfiles > optional

Whether the varfile is optional.

Type	Required
boolean	No

kind

Type	Allowed Values	Required
string	"Build"	Yes

allowPublish

When false, disables publishing this build to remote registries via the publish command.

Type	Default	Required
boolean	true	No

buildAtSource

By default, builds are staged in .garden/build/<build name> and that directory is used as the build context. This is done to avoid builds contaminating the source tree, which can end up confusing version computation, or a build including files that are not intended to be part of it. In most scenarios, the default behavior is desired and leads to the most predictable and verifiable builds, as well as avoiding potential confusion around file watching.

You can override this by setting buildAtSource: true, which basically sets the build root for this action at the location of the Build action config in the source tree. This means e.g. that the build command in exec Builds runs at the source, and for Docker image builds the build is initiated from the source directory.

An important implication is that include and exclude directives for the action, as well as .gardenignore files, only affect version hash computation but are otherwise not effective in controlling the build context. This may lead to unexpected variation in builds with the same version hash. This may also slow down code synchronization to remote destinations, e.g. when performing remote Docker image builds.

Additionally, any exec runtime actions (and potentially others) that reference this Build with the build field, will run from the source directory of this action.

While there may be good reasons to do this in some situations, please be aware that this increases the potential for side-effects and variability in builds. You must take extra care, including making sure that files generated during builds are excluded with e.g. .gardenignore files or exclude fields on potentially affected actions. Another potential issue is causing infinite loops when running with file-watching enabled, basically triggering a new build during the build.

Type	Default	Required
boolean	false	No

copyFrom[]

Copy files from other builds, ahead of running this build.

Type	Default	Required
array[object]	[]	No

copyFrom[].build

copyFrom > build

The name of the Build action to copy from.

Type	Required
string	Yes

copyFrom[].sourcePath

copyFrom > sourcePath

POSIX-style path or filename of the directory or file(s) to copy to the target, relative to the build path of the source build.

Type	Required
posixPath	Yes

copyFrom[].targetPath

copyFrom > targetPath

POSIX-style path or filename to copy the directory or file(s), relative to the build directory. Defaults to to same as source path.

Type	Required
posixPath	No

include[]

Specify a list of POSIX-style paths or globs that should be included as the build context for the Build, and will affect the computed version of the action.

If nothing is specified here, the whole directory may be assumed to be included in the build. Providers are sometimes able to infer the list of paths, e.g. from a Dockerfile, but often this is inaccurate (say, if a Dockerfile has an ADD . statement) so it may be important to set include and/or exclude to define the build context. Otherwise you may find unrelated files being included in the build context and the build version, which may result in unnecessarily repeated builds.

You can exclude files using the exclude field or by placing .gardenignore files in your source tree, which use the same format as .gitignore files. See the Configuration Files guide for details.

Type	Required
array[posixPath]	No

Example:

include:
  - my-app.js
  - some-assets/**/*

exclude[]

Specify a list of POSIX-style paths or glob patterns that should be explicitly excluded from the build context and the Build version.

Providers are sometimes able to infer the include field, e.g. from a Dockerfile, but often this is inaccurate (say, if a Dockerfile has an ADD . statement) so it may be important to set include and/or exclude to define the build context. Otherwise you may find unrelated files being included in the build context and the build version, which may result in unnecessarily repeated builds.

Unlike the scan.exclude field in the project config, the filters here have no effect on which files and directories are watched for changes when watching is enabled. Use the project scan.exclude field to affect those, if you have large directories that should not be watched for changes.

Type	Required
array[posixPath]	No

Example:

exclude:
  - tmp/**/*
  - '*.log'

timeout

Set a timeout for the build to complete, in seconds.

Type	Default	Required
number	600	No

spec

Type	Required
object	No

spec.shell

spec > shell

If true, runs file inside of a shell. Uses /bin/sh on UNIX and cmd.exe on Windows. A different shell can be specified as a string. The shell should understand the -c switch on UNIX or /d /s /c on Windows.

Note that if this is not set, no shell interpreter (Bash, cmd.exe, etc.) is used, so shell features such as variables substitution (echo $PATH) are not allowed.

We recommend against using this option since it is:

• not cross-platform, encouraging shell-specific syntax.

• slower, because of the additional shell interpretation.

• unsafe, potentially allowing command injection.

Type	Required
boolean	No

spec.command[]

spec > command

The command to run to perform the build.

Note: You may omit this if all you need is for other implicit actions to happen, like copying files from build dependencies etc.

By default, the command is run inside the Garden build directory (under .garden/build/). If the top level buildAtSource directive is set to true, the command runs in the action source directory instead. Please see the docs for that field for more information and potential implications. Also note that other exec actions that reference this build via the build field will then also run from this action's source directory.

Example: ["npm","run","build"]

Type	Default	Required
array	[]	No

spec.env

spec > env

Environment variables to set when running the command.

Type	Default	Required
object	{}	No

Outputs

The following keys are available via the ${actions.build.<name>} template string key for exec action.

${actions.build.<name>.name}

The name of the action.

Type
string

${actions.build.<name>.disabled}

Whether the action is disabled.

Type
boolean

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.build.my-build.disabled}

${actions.build.<name>.buildPath}

The local path to the action build directory.

Type
string

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.build.my-build.buildPath}

${actions.build.<name>.sourcePath}

The local path to the action source directory.

Type
string

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.build.my-build.sourcePath}

${actions.build.<name>.mode}

The mode that the action should be executed in (e.g. 'sync' or 'local' for Deploy actions). Set to 'default' if no special mode is being used.

Build actions inherit the mode from Deploy actions that depend on them. E.g. If a Deploy action is in 'sync' mode and depends on a Build action, the Build action will inherit the 'sync' mode setting from the Deploy action. This enables installing different tools that may be necessary for different development modes.

Type	Default
string	"default"

Example:

my-variable: ${actions.build.my-build.mode}

${actions.build.<name>.var.*}

The variables configured on the action.

Type	Default
object	{}

${actions.build.<name>.var.<name>}

Type
string | number | boolean | link | array[link]

${actions.build.<name>.outputs.log}

The full log output from the executed command. (Pro-tip: Make it machine readable so it can be parsed by dependants)

Type	Default
string	""

${actions.build.<name>.outputs.stdout}

The stdout log output from the executed command. (Pro-tip: Make it machine readable so it can be parsed by dependants)

Type	Default
string	""

${actions.build.<name>.outputs.stderr}

The stderr log output from the executed command. (Pro-tip: Make it machine readable so it can be parsed by dependants)

Type	Default
string	""