Adding commands to a devfile

A devfile allows you to specify commands to be available for execution in a workspace. Every command can contain a subset of actions. These subsets are related to specific components and are executed in the component containers. See the following tables for command properties in a devfile:

Table 1. commandObject
Key	Type	Required	Description
exec	execObject	no	The exec command to run.
composite	compositeObject	no	The composite command to run.

Table 2. execObject
Key	Type	Required	Description
id	string	yes	The ID of the command.
commandLine	string	yes	The command to run.
component	string	no	The component to which the action relates.
label	string	no	The optional label to describe the command.
workingDir	string	no	The working directory where you execute the command.
group	groupObject	no	The group to which the command belongs.
environment	envObject	no	The list of environment variables you use.

Table 3. compositeObject
Key	Type	Required	Description
id	string	yes	The ID of the command.
commands	string	no	The exec commands that constitute the composite command and chains multiple commands together.
parallel	boolean	no	The flag that indicates if commands are executed in parallel.
label	string	no	The optional label to describe the command.
group	groupObject	no	The group to which the composite command belongs. The composite command cannot be of the `run` kind.

Table 4. groupObject
Key	Type	Required	Description
kind	string	yes	The group to which the command belongs, such as: `build`, `run`, `test`, and `debug`.
isDefault	boolean	no	Identifies if it is the default command to run. Only one default command can be defined for each group.

Prerequisites

Procedure

Add a commands section in the devfile, containing a list of one or more commands.
For each command, define an unique value for the mandatory id attribute.

For each command, define a mandatory type of one of the following types:

exec
apply
composite

Sample command

 commands:
   - id: build
     exec:
      component: mysql
      commandLine: mvn clean
      workingDir: /projects/spring-petclinic

Define attributes for the exec command to run using the default shell in the container.

A commandLine attribute that is a command to execute.
A component attribute that specifies the container in which to execute the command.

schemaVersion: 2.1.0
metadata:
  name: mydevfile
projects:
  - name: my-go-project
    clonePath: go/src/github.com/acme/my-go-project
    git:
      remotes:
        origin: "https://github.com/acme/my-go-project.git"
components:
  - name: go-cli
    container:
      image: golang
      memoryLimit: 512Mi
      mountSources: true
      command: ['sleep', 'infinity']
      env:
        - name: GOPATH
          value: $(PROJECTS_ROOT)/go
        - name: GOCACHE
          value: /tmp/go-cache
commands:
  - id: compile and run
    exec:
      component: go-cli
      commandLine: "go get -d && go run main.go"
      workingDir: "${PROJECTS_ROOT}/src/github.com/acme/my-go-project"

A command can have only one action, though you can use composite commands to execute several commands either sequentially or in parallel.

Command group

To assign a given command to one or more groups that represent the nature of the command, use the following supported group types:

build
run
test

debug

For each of the groups, define one default command by specifying the isDefault value.

schemaVersion: 2.1.0
metadata:
  name: mydevfile
projects:
  - name: my-maven-project
    clonePath: maven/src/github.com/acme/my-maven-project
    git:
      remotes:
        origin: "https://github.com/acme/my-maven-project.git"
components:
  - name: maven
    container:
      image: eclipse/maven-jdk8:latest
      mountSources: true
      command: ['tail']
commands:
  - id: package
    exec:
      component: maven
      commandLine: "mvn package"
      group:
        kind: build
  - id: install
    exec:
      component: maven
      commandLine: "mvn install"
      group:
        kind: build
        isDefault: true

Composite command

To chain multiple commands together, define a composite command. To reference the individual commands that are called from a composite command, use the name of the command. To specify whether commands within a composite command are to be executed sequentially or in parallel, define the parallel boolean.

schemaVersion: 2.1.0
metadata:
  name: mydevfile
projects:
  - name: my-maven-project
    clonePath: maven/src/github.com/acme/my-maven-project
    git:
      remotes:
        origin: "https://github.com/acme/my-maven-project.git"
components:
  - name: maven
    container:
      image: eclipse/maven-jdk8:latest
      mountSources: true
      command: ['tail']
commands:
  - id: package
    exec:
      component: maven
      commandLine: "mvn package"
      group:
        kind: build
  - id: install
    exec:
      component: maven
      commandLine: "mvn install"
      group:
        kind: build
        isDefault: true
  - id: installandpackage
    composite:
      commands:
        - install
        - package
      parallel: false

Additional resources