Album plugin for creating Docker images from solutions

Plugin for creating Docker images from Album solutions.

The plugin allows you to package an Album solution into a Docker image, which can then be used to run the solution in a containerized environment, containing all necessary dependencies and configurations. Behavior of the container will be similar to the album run command, but the solution will be installed in a Docker image instead of the local environment. This is particularly useful for ensuring that the solution runs with all its dependencies in a consistent environment.

Installation:

1. Install Album
2. Activate the album environment:

micromamba activate album

3. Install the album docker plugin:

micromamba install album-docker -c conda-forge

Or via pip:

pip install album-docker

Usage:

To create a docker image which contains Album with the passed solution installed run following command:

If your solution is in a directory, you can copy the solution.py file into a new folder, e.g. mySolutionFolder, and then run the command from that folder.

mkdir mySolutionFolder
cp /path/to/your/solution.py mySolutionFolder/

Then run the following command to create the docker image:

album docker --solution mySolutionFolder --output_path /your/output/path

The outcome will be a docker image with the tag <group>:<name>:<version> of the solution, where <group>, <name>, and <version> are defined in the solution.py file.

Input parameter:

• solution: The album solution which should be packed into an executable.
• output_path: The path where the executable should be saved
• install-flags: Flags to pass to the album install command, e.g. '--allow-recursive'.
• install-deps: Dependencies to install in the docker image, e.g. 'gxx' or 'gxx cmake'. This line will be added to the Dockerfile as a RUN command, so you can use any command that is valid in a Dockerfile.

Example:

album docker --solution mySolutionFolder --output_path /your/output/path --install-flags="--allow-recursive" --install-deps="apt update && apt install -y gxx cmake"

This will create a docker image with the tag group:name:version of the solution. Inside the image, the solution is installed together with the dependencies gxx and cmake.