rules_distroless

Bazel helper rules to aid with some of the steps needed to create a Linux / Debian installation. These rules are designed to replace commands such as apt-get install, passwd, groupadd, useradd, update-ca-certificates.

[!CAUTION]

rules_distroless is currently in beta and does not yet offer a stable Public API. However, many users are already successfully using it in production environments. Check Adopters to see who's already using it.

Contributing

This ruleset is primarily funded to support Google's distroless container images. We may not work on feature requests that do not support this mission.

We will however accept fully tested contributions via pull requests if they align with the project goals (e.g. add support for a different compression format) and may reject requests that do not (e.g. supporting other packaging formats other than .deb).

[!TIP] There's limited maintainer time for this project, so we strongly encourage focused, small, and readable Pull Requests.

Usage

Add the following to your MODULE.bazel file:

bazel_dep(name = "rules_distroless", version = "0.5.1")

You can find the latest release version in the Bazel Central Registry.

If you want to use a specific commit (e.g. there are commits in main that are still not part of a release) you can use one of the few mechanisms that Bazel provides to override repos.

You can use git_override, archive_override, etc (or local_path_override if you want to test a local patch):

bazel_dep(name = "rules_distroless", version = "0.5.1")

git_override(
    module_name = "rules_distroless",
    remote = "https://github.com/bazel-contrib/rules_distroless.git",
    commit = "a69bc1949d5daf2d1b0906890667d69b0897688b",
)

Examples

The examples demonstrate how to accomplish typical tasks such as create a new user group or create a new home directory:

• groupadd
• passwd
• useradd --home
• update-ca-certificates
• keytool
• apt-get install from Debian repositories.
• apt-get install from Ubuntu repositories.

We also have distroless-specific rules that could be useful:

• flatten: flatten multiple tar archives.
• os_release: create an /etc/os-release file.
• locale: strip /usr/lib/locale to be smaller.
• dpkg_statusd: creates a /var/lib/dpkg/status.d package database for scanners to discover installed packages.

Public API Docs

To read more specific documentation for each of the rules in the repo please check the following docs:

• apt: repository rule for installing Debian/Ubuntu packages.
• apt macro: legacy macro for installing Debian/Ubuntu packages.
• rules: various helper rules to aid with creating a Linux / Debian installation from scratch.

Adopters

• Google's distroless container images
• Arize AI

[!TIP] Are you using rules_distroless? Please send us a Pull Request to add your project or company name here!