Immediately, we’re saying the Normal Availability 1.0 model of rules_oci, an open-sourced Bazel plugin (“ruleset”) that makes it less complicated and safer to construct container photos with Bazel. This effort was a collaboration we had with Facet and the Guidelines Authors Particular Curiosity Group. On this put up, we’ll clarify how rules_oci differs from its predecessor, rules_docker, and describe the advantages it provides for each container picture safety and the container neighborhood.

Google’s common construct and take a look at software, generally known as Bazel, is gaining quick adoption inside enterprises due to its skill to scale to the biggest codebases and deal with builds in nearly any language. As a result of Bazel manages and caches dependencies by their integrity hash, it’s uniquely suited to make assurances concerning the provide chain primarily based on the Belief-on-First-Use precept. A method Google makes use of Bazel is to construct broadly used Distroless base photos for Docker. 

Distroless is a collection of minimal base photos which enhance supply-chain safety. They limit what’s in your runtime container to exactly what’s obligatory in your app, which is a greatest observe employed by Google and different tech firms which have used containers in manufacturing for a few years. Utilizing minimal base photos reduces the burden of managing dangers related to safety vulnerabilities, licensing, and governance points within the provide chain for constructing functions.

Traditionally, constructing container photos was supported by rules_docker, which is now in upkeep mode. The brand new ruleset, known as rules_oci, is best fitted to Distroless in addition to most Bazel container builds for a number of causes:

• The Open Container Initiative normal has modified the enjoying discipline, and there at the moment are a number of container runtimes and picture codecs. rules_oci just isn’t tied to working a docker daemon already put in on the machine.

• rules_docker was created earlier than many wonderful container manipulation instruments existed, similar to Crane, Skopeo, and Zot. rules_oci is ready to merely depend on trusted third-party toolchains and keep away from constructing or sustaining any Bazel-specific instruments.

• rules_oci doesn’t embody any language-specific guidelines, which makes it way more maintainable than rules_docker. Additionally, it avoids the pitfalls of stale dependencies on different language rulesets.

There are different nice options of rules_oci to focus on as effectively. For instance, it makes use of Bazel’s downloader to fetch layers from a distant registry, bettering caching and permitting clear use of a personal registry. Multi-architecture photos make it extra handy to focus on platforms like ARM-based servers, and assist Home windows Containers as effectively. Code signing permits customers to confirm {that a} container picture they use was created by the developer who signed it, and was not modified by any third-party alongside the best way (e.g. person-in-the-middle assault). Together with the work on Bazel workforce’s roadmap, you’ll additionally get a Software program Invoice of Supplies (SBOM) displaying what went into the container you utilize.

Since adopting rules_oci and Bazel 6, the Distroless workforce has seen numerous enhancements to our construct processes, picture outputs, and safety metadata:

• Native assist for signing permits us to get rid of a race situation that would have left some photos unsigned. We now signal on immutable digests references to pictures throughout the construct as an alternative of tags after the construct.

• Native assist for oci indexes (multi platform photos) allowed us to take away our dependency on docker throughout construct. This additionally means extra pure and debuggable failures when one thing goes unsuitable with multi platform builds.

• Enhancements to fetching and caching means our CI builds are quicker and extra dependable when utilizing distant repositories.

• Distroless photos at the moment are accompanied by SBOMs embedded in a signed attestation, which you’ll view with cosign and a few jq magic:

cosign obtain attestation gcr.io/distroless/base:latest-amd64 | jq -rcs ‘.[0].payload’ | base64 -d | jq -r ‘.predicate’ | jq

In the long run, rules_oci allowed us to modernize the Distroless construct whereas additionally including obligatory provide chain safety metadata to permit organizations to make higher selections concerning the photos they eat.

Immediately, we’re completely satisfied to announce that rules_oci is now a 1.0 model. This stability assure follows the semver normal, and guarantees that future releases gained’t embody breaking public API modifications. Facet gives assets for utilizing rules_oci, similar to a Migration information from rules_docker. It additionally gives assist, coaching, and consulting companies for successfully adopting rules_oci to construct containers in all languages.

Should you use rules_docker as we speak, or are contemplating utilizing Bazel to construct your containers, it is a nice time to provide rules_oci a attempt. You possibly can assist by submitting actionable points, contributing code, or donating to the Guidelines Authors SIG OpenCollective. For the reason that mission is developed and maintained completely as community-driven open supply, your assist is important to maintaining the mission wholesome and conscious of your wants.

Particular due to Sahin Yort and Alex Eagle from Facet.