Docker Pipelines

This tutorial will help you create and execute a simple Docker pipeline. Please see our pipeline documentation for detailed usage instructions.

Authenticate

First, navigate to your Drone server URL in your browser. If you are not already authenticated, Drone will redirect you to GitHub to login.

After login you are redirected back to your Drone dashboard. If this is your first time using Drone your dashboard will be empty for a few seconds while Drone synchronizes your repository list with GitHub.

Enable your Repository

Next, search for your repository and click the Enable button. Clicking the enable button adds a webhook to your repository to notify Drone every time you push code. Please note you must have admin privileges to the repository to enable.

Configure your Pipeline

Next, you need to configure a pipeline by creating a .drone.yml file to the root of your git repository. In this file we define a series of steps that are executed every time a webhook is received.

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10

kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: default

steps:
- name: greeting
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo hello
  - echo world

Here is a quick overview of the variables used in this example:

  • kind
    The kind attribute defines the kind of object. This example defines a pipeline object. Other kinds of object are secret and signature objects.
  • type
    The type attribute defines the type of pipeline. This example defines a Docker pipeline where each pipeline step is executed inside a Docker container. Drone supports different types of pipeline execution environments.
  • name
    The name attribute defines a name for your pipeline. You can define one or many pipelines for your project.
  • steps
    The steps section defines an array of pipeline steps that are executed serially. If any step in the pipeline fails, the pipeline exits immediately.
    • name
      The name attribute defines the name of the pipeline step.
    • image
      The image attribute defines a Docker image in which the shell commands are executed. You can use any Docker image in your pipeline from any Docker registry, including private registries.
    • commands
      The commands attribute defines a list of shell commands that are executed inside the Docker container as the container entrypoint. If any command returns a non-zero exit code the pipeline step fails.

Please see our pipeline documentation for a full list of configuration options.

Additional Examples

  • You can add multiple steps to your pipeline:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: greeting

steps:
- name: en
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo hello world

- name: fr
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo bonjour monde

  • You can conditionally limit pipeline steps to execute based on branch or webhook events:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: greeting

steps:
- name: en
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo hello world

- name: fr
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo bonjour monde
  when:
    branch:
    - develop

  • You can even define multiple pipelines:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: en

steps:
- name: greeting
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo hello world

---
kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: fr

steps:
- name: greeting
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo bonjour monde

  • You can conditionally limit pipeline execution:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: en

steps:
- name: greeting
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo hello world

trigger:
  event:
  - push

---
kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: fr

steps:
- name: greeting
  image: alpine
  commands:
  - echo bonjour monde

trigger:
  event:
  - pull_request

  • You can use any image from any docker registry:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: default

steps:
- name: test
  image: gcr.io/library/golang
  commands:
  - go build
  - go test -v

  • You can define service containers for integration tests:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: default

steps:
- name: test
  image: golang:1.13
  commands:
  - go build
  - go test -v

services:
- name: redis
  image: redis

  • You can use plugins to integrate with third party systems and perform common tasks, such as notify, publish or deploy software.

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: default

steps:
- name: test
  image: golang:1.13
  commands:
  - go build
  - go test -v

- name: notify
  image: plugins/slack
  settings:
    channel: dev
    webhook: https://hooks.slack.com/services/...

  • You can also source sensitive parameters from secrets:

     1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

    kind: pipeline
type: docker
name: default

steps:
- name: test
  image: golang:1.13
  commands:
  - go build
  - go test -v

- name: notify
  image: plugins/slack
  settings:
    channel: dev
    webhook:
      from_secret: endpoint

Execute your Pipeline

The final step is to commit your .drone.yml to your repository and push your changes. When you push code, GitHub sends a webhook to Drone which in turn executes your pipeline.