BuildKit daemon can be built in two different versions: one that uses [containerd](https://github.com/containerd/containerd) for execution and distribution, and a standalone version that doesn't have other dependencies apart from [runc](https://github.com/opencontainers/runc). We are open for adding more backends. `buildd` is a CLI utility for serving the gRPC API.
`examples/buildkit*` directory contains scripts that define how to build different configurations of BuildKit and its dependencies using the `client` package. Running one of these script generates a protobuf definition of a build graph. Note that the script itself does not execute any steps of the build.
To start building use `buildctl build` command. The example script accepts `--target` flag to choose between `containerd` and `standalone` configurations. In standalone mode BuildKit binaries are built together with `runc`. In containerd mode, the `containerd` binary is built as well from the upstream repo.
`buildctl build` will show interactive progress bar by default while the build job is running. It will also show you the path to the trace file that contains all information about the timing of the individual steps and logs.
Different versions of the example scripts show different ways of describing the build definition for this project to show the capabilities of the library. New versions have been added when new features have become available.
-`./examples/buildkit0` - uses only exec operations, defines a full stage per component.
-`./examples/buildkit1` - cloning git repositories has been separated for extra concurrency.
-`./examples/buildkit2` - uses git sources directly instead of running `git clone`, allowing better performance and much safer caching.
-`./examples/buildkit3` - allows using local source files for separate components eg. `./buildkit3 --runc=local | buildctl build --local runc-src=some/local/path`
buildkit can be also used by running the `buildd` daemon inside a Docker container and accessing it remotely. The client tool `buildctl` is also available for Mac and Windows.
During development buildkit is tested with the version of runc that is being used by the containerd repository. Please refer to [runc.md](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/d1e11f17ec7b325f89608dd46c128300b8727d50/RUNC.md) for more information.