github.com/askholme/packer@v0.7.2-0.20140924152349-70d9566a6852/README.md (about)

     1  # Packer
     2  
     3  * Website: http://www.packer.io
     4  * IRC: `#packer-tool` on Freenode
     5  * Mailing list: [Google Groups](http://groups.google.com/group/packer-tool)
     6  
     7  Packer is a tool for building identical machine images for multiple platforms
     8  from a single source configuration.
     9  
    10  Packer is lightweight, runs on every major operating system, and is highly
    11  performant, creating machine images for multiple platforms in parallel.
    12  Packer comes out of the box with support for the following platforms:
    13  * Amazon EC2 (AMI). Both EBS-backed and instance-store AMIs
    14  * DigitalOcean
    15  * Docker
    16  * Google Compute Engine
    17  * OpenStack
    18  * Parallels
    19  * QEMU. Both KVM and Xen images.
    20  * VirtualBox
    21  * VMware
    22  
    23  Support for other platforms can be added via plugins.
    24  
    25  The images that Packer creates can easily be turned into
    26  [Vagrant](http://www.vagrantup.com) boxes.
    27  
    28  ## Quick Start
    29  
    30  **Note:** There is a great
    31  [introduction and getting started guide](http://www.packer.io/intro)
    32  for those with a bit more patience. Otherwise, the quick start below
    33  will get you up and running quickly, at the sacrifice of not explaining some
    34  key points.
    35  
    36  First, [download a pre-built Packer binary](http://www.packer.io/downloads.html)
    37  for your operating system or [compile Packer yourself](#developing-packer).
    38  
    39  After Packer is installed, create your first template, which tells Packer
    40  what platforms to build images for and how you want to build them. In our
    41  case, we'll create a simple AMI that has Redis pre-installed. Save this
    42  file as `quick-start.json`. Be sure to replace any credentials with your
    43  own.
    44  
    45  ```json
    46  {
    47    "builders": [{
    48      "type": "amazon-ebs",
    49      "access_key": "YOUR KEY HERE",
    50      "secret_key": "YOUR SECRET KEY HERE",
    51      "region": "us-east-1",
    52      "source_ami": "ami-de0d9eb7",
    53      "instance_type": "t1.micro",
    54      "ssh_username": "ubuntu",
    55      "ami_name": "packer-example {{timestamp}}"
    56    }]
    57  }
    58  ```
    59  
    60  Next, tell Packer to build the image:
    61  
    62  ```
    63  $ packer build quick-start.json
    64  ...
    65  ```
    66  
    67  Packer will build an AMI according to the "quick-start" template. The AMI
    68  will be available in your AWS account. To delete the AMI, you must manually
    69  delete it using the [AWS console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/). Packer
    70  builds your images, it does not manage their lifecycle. Where they go, how
    71  they're run, etc. is up to you.
    72  
    73  ## Documentation
    74  
    75  Full, comprehensive documentation is viewable on the Packer website:
    76  
    77  http://www.packer.io/docs
    78  
    79  ## Developing Packer
    80  
    81  If you wish to work on Packer itself or any of its built-in providers,
    82  you'll first need [Go](http://www.golang.org) installed (version 1.2+ is
    83  _required_). Make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up
    84  a [GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH).
    85  
    86  Next, install the following software packages, which are needed for some dependencies:
    87  
    88  - [Bazaar](http://bazaar.canonical.com/en/)
    89  - [Git](http://git-scm.com/)
    90  - [Mercurial](http://mercurial.selenic.com/)
    91  
    92  Then, install [Gox](https://github.com/mitchellh/gox), which is used
    93  as a compilation tool on top of Go:
    94  
    95      $ go get -u github.com/mitchellh/gox
    96  
    97  Next, clone this repository into `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer`.
    98  Install the necessary dependencies by running `make updatedeps` and then just
    99  type `make`. This will compile some more dependencies and then run the tests. If
   100  this exits with exit status 0, then everything is working!
   101  
   102      $ make updatedeps
   103      ...
   104      $ make
   105      ...
   106  
   107  To compile a development version of Packer and the built-in plugins,
   108  run `make dev`. This will put Packer binaries in the `bin` folder:
   109  
   110      $ make dev
   111      ...
   112      $ bin/packer
   113      ...
   114  
   115  
   116  If you're developing a specific package, you can run tests for just that
   117  package by specifying the `TEST` variable. For example below, only
   118  `packer` package tests will be run.
   119  
   120      $ make test TEST=./packer
   121      ...