Docker build-with-cache action

This action builds your docker image and caches the stages (supports multi-stage builds) to improve building times in subsequent builds.

By default, it pushes the image with all the stages to a registry (needs username and password), but you can disable this feature by setting push_image_and_stages to false.

Built-in support for the most known registries:

Docker Hub
AWS ECR (private and public)
GitHub's (old and new registry)
Google Cloud's (currently not under test)

:star2: Action supercharged

Docker updated to 24.0.6
BuildKit is enabled for faster/parallel builds

Cache also works with BuildKit enabled except for old GitHub Docker Registry (docker.pkg.github.com). You can either migrate to ghcr.io or disable BuildKit to use the old registry:

- name: Build with DOCKER_BUILDKIT disabled for old GitHub Docker Registry
  uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@master
  env:
    DOCKER_BUILDKIT: 0
  with:
    registry: docker.pkg.github.com
  ...

Inputs

Required

image_name: Image name (e.g. node).

compose_file: path to Docker Compose file. You will need to configure this action multiple times if you have a compose file which uses more than one registry.

:star2: New in v5.10.0: Now you can use overrides for your compose file(s) like this:
docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.override.yml > docker-compose.override2.yml

Optional

image_tag: Tag(s) of the image. Allows multiple comma-separated tags (e.g. one,another) (default: latest).
If you set compose_file and the image(s) already has/have a tag, this is ignored.
context: Docker context (default: ./). If a compose_file is provided, it will be the context prefixed to any additional context read from the compose file. Look at #133 for more details.
registry: Docker registry (default: Docker Hub's registry). You need a registry to use the cache functionality.
username: Docker registry's user (needed to push images, or to pull from a private repository).
password: Docker registry's password (needed to push images, or to pull from a private repository).
session: Extra auth parameters. For AWS ECR, means setting AWS_SESSION_TOKEN environment variable.
push_git_tag: In addition to image_tag, you can also push the git tag in your branch tip (default: false).
pull_image_and_stages: Set to false to avoid pulling from the registry or to build from scratch (default: true).
stages_image_name: Set custom name for stages/cache image (default: ${image_name}-stages). Tags are ignored.
push_image_and_stages: Test a command before pushing. Use false to not push at all (default: true).

This input also supports 2 special values, which are useful if your workflow can be triggered by different events:
- on:push: Push only if the workflow was triggered by a push.
- on:pull_request: Push only if the workflow was triggered by a pull_request.
services_regex: Regex to filter services from compose file. Only valid when compose_file was provided. Default is .+ (all services).

Ignored if `compose_file` is set

image_name
dockerfile: Dockerfile filename path (default: "$context"/Dockerfile).
build_extra_args: Extra params for docker build (e.g. "--build-arg=hello=world").

:star2: New in v5.11.0: If you need extra args with newlines or spaces, use json format like this:
build_extra_args: '{"--build-arg": "myarg=Hello\nWorld"}'

:star2: If you need multiple args with same key, use an array as the value of the key like this:
build_extra_args: '{"--build-arg": ["foo=bar", "one=two"]}'

Outputs

FULL_IMAGE_NAME: Full name of the Docker Image with the Registry (if provided) and Namespace included.
e.g.: docker.pkg.github.com/whoan/hello-world/hello-world

How it works

The action does the following every time it is triggered:

(Optional) Pull previously pushed stages (if any) from the specified registry (default: https://hub.docker.com)
Build the image using cache (i.e. the pulled stages)
Tag the image
(Optional) Push the image with the tag(s) specified in image_tag
(Optional) Push each stage to the registry with names like <image_name>-stages:<1,2,3,...>
(Optional) Push the git tag as <image_name>:<git_tag> if you set push_git_tag: true

Examples

Find working minimal examples for the most known registries in this repo.

Docker Hub

If you don't specify a registry, Docker Hub is the default one

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.DOCKER_HUB_PASSWORD }}"
    image_name: hello-world

GitHub Registry

GitHub automatically creates a GITHUB_TOKEN secret to use in your workflow. If you are going to use the new GitHub Registry (ghcr.io), be sure to use a Personal Access Token (as the password) with "write:packages" and "read:packages" scopes. More info here.

If you push the image to a public repository's GitHub Registry, please be aware that it will be impossible to delete it because of GitHub's policy (see Deleting a package).

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    registry: docker.pkg.github.com
    #or
    #registry: ghcr.io
    image_name: hello-world

Google Cloud Registry

More info here on how to get GCloud JSON key.

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: _json_key
    password: "${{ secrets.GCLOUD_JSON_KEY }}"
    registry: gcr.io
    image_name: hello-world

AWS ECR

You don't even need to create the repositories in advance, as this action takes care of that for you! (you'll need the CreateRepository permission)

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: "${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}"  # no need to provide it if you already logged in with aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials
    password: "${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}"  # no need to provide it if you already logged in with aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials
    session:  "${{ secrets.AWS_SESSION_TOKEN }}"  # if you need role assumption. no need to provide it if you already logged in with aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials
    # private registry
    registry: 861729690598.dkr.ecr.us-west-1.amazonaws.com
    # or public registry
    #registry: public.ecr.aws
    image_name: hello-world

From a compose file

The compose file is parsed and the action will run once for each detected image. The registry is also detected from the image name, and if none is provided, DockerHub is assumed.

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.DOCKER_HUB_PASSWORD }}"
    compose_file: docker-compose.yml

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    registry: docker.pkg.github.com
    compose_file: docker-compose.yml

With a compose file override:

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.DOCKER_HUB_PASSWORD }}"
    compose_file: docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.override.yml

Filtering services by regex:

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    registry: docker.pkg.github.com
    compose_file: docker-compose.yml
    services_regex: '(service_1|extra_service.*)' # eg: builds services called exactly "service_1" plus the ones which start with "extra_service" and may have extra chars after

Example with more options

- uses: whoan/docker-build-with-cache-action@v5
  with:
    username: whoan
    password: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
    image_name: whoan/docker-images/node
    image_tag: alpine-slim,another-tag,latest
    push_git_tag: true
    registry: docker.pkg.github.com
    context: node-alpine-slim
    dockerfile: custom.Dockerfile
    build_extra_args: "--compress=true --build-arg=hello=world"
    push_image_and_stages: docker run my_awesome_image:latest  # eg: push only if docker run succeed

Cache is not working?

Be specific with the base images. e.g.: if you start from an image with the latest tag, it may download different versions when the action is triggered, and it will invalidate the cache.
If you are using Buildkit, the stages won't be pushed to the registry. This might be supported in a future version.
Some docker limitations might cause the cache not to be used correctly. More information in this SO answer.

Tests

The tests for this action are run in a separate repo as I need to set credentials for each registry with GitHub secrets and doing so in this repo is not practical.