github.com/homburg/packer@v0.6.1-0.20140528012651-1dcaf1716848/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, you'll first need [Go](http://golang.org)
    82  installed (version 1.2+ is _required_). Make sure you have Go properly installed,
    83  including setting up your [GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH).
    84  
    85  For some additional dependencies, Go needs [Mercurial](http://mercurial.selenic.com/)
    86  and [Bazaar](http://bazaar.canonical.com/en/) to be installed.
    87  Packer itself doesn't require these, but a dependency of a dependency does.
    88  
    89  You'll also need [`gox`](https://github.com/mitchellh/gox)
    90  to compile packer. You can install that with:
    91  
    92  ```
    93  $ go get -u github.com/mitchellh/gox
    94  ```
    95  
    96  Next, clone this repository into `$GOPATH/src/github.com/mitchellh/packer` and
    97  then just type `make`. In a few moments, you'll have a working `packer` executable:
    98  
    99  ```
   100  $ make
   101  ...
   102  $ bin/packer
   103  ...
   104  ```
   105  
   106  If you need to cross-compile Packer for other platforms, take a look at
   107  `scripts/dist.sh`.
   108  
   109  You can run tests by typing `make test`.
   110  
   111  This will run tests for Packer core along with all the core builders and commands and such that come with Packer.
   112  
   113  If you make any changes to the code, run `make format` in order to automatically
   114  format the code according to Go standards.
   115  
   116  When new dependencies are added to packer you can use `make updatedeps` to
   117  get the latest and subsequently use `make` to compile and generate the `packer` binary.