Patterns

In a nutshell, Make calls either Docker or Compose which then runs a Command inside a container. A project does not need to follow only 1 pattern. For instance, make targetA can call Compose and make targetB, Docker.

pattern-overview

Compose

In this pattern, Make calls Compose which then runs the Command inside a container.

pattern-compose

Examples

Here are some examples illustrating Compose with different commands.

Make

Make calls Compose which then calls another Make target inside a Docker container. This requires the Docker image (that runs the command) to have Make installed.

version: "3"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine
    volumes:
      - .:/opt/app
    working_dir: /opt/app

echo:
	docker compose run --rm alpine make _echo

_echo:
	echo 'Hello, World!'

make echo

Shell

Make calls Compose which executes a shell/bash command inside a Docker container.

version: "3"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine

echo:
	docker compose run --rm alpine sh -c 'echo Hello, World!'

make echo

Shell file

Make calls Compose which executes a shell/bash command inside a Docker container. The following example uses a shell file that mimics Make:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
deps(){
  printf "deps\n"
}

test(){
  printf "test\n"
}

for target in "$@"
do
  case "$target" in
    (deps)
      deps
      ;;
    (test)
      test
      ;;
    (*)
      printf "Usage: $0 {deps|test}\n"
      exit 2
      ;;
  esac
done

chmod +x make.sh

version: "3.8"
services:
  alpine:
    image: alpine
    volumes:
      - .:/opt/app
    working_dir: /opt/app

test:
	docker compose run --rm alpine make.sh deps test

make test

Go

Languages like Go, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, etc can be used as an alternative to shell/bash scripts. The following example uses Go to echo ‘Hello, World!‘.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Hello, World!")
}

version: "3"
services:
  golang:
    image: golang:alpine
    volumes:
      - .:/opt/app
    working_dir: /opt/app

echo:
	docker compose run --rm golang go run main.go

make echo

npm

There are many languages and tools out there to make task implementation easy such as Gulp and Rake. Those tools can easily be integrated to the 3 Musketeers. The following is simply a NodeJS example which echos “Hello, World!” by invoking npm.

{
  "name": "helloworld",
  "description": "echos 'Hello, World!'",
  "scripts": {
    "echo": "echo 'Hello, World!'"
  }
}

version: "3"
services:
  node:
    image: node:alpine
    volumes:
      - .:/opt/app
    working_dir: /opt/app

echo:
	docker compose run --rm node npm run echo

make echo

Docker

Make calls directly Docker instead of Compose. Everything that is done with Compose can be done with Docker. Using Compose helps to keep the Makefile clean.

pattern-docker

echo:
	docker run --rm alpine echo 'Hello, World!'

make echo

Docker-in/outside-of-Docker (DinD/DooD)

There are many articles and videos talking about Docker-in-Docker (DinD) and Docker-outside-of-Docker (DooD) with pros and cons. This section describes a pattern that can be applied to both. A Docker container contains Make, Docker, and Compose which communicates to a Docker daemon, whether it is on a host (DooD) or inside another container (DinD). In such case, an image like flemay/musketeers can be used.

pattern-dind

An example of DooD is the 3 Musketeers demo generated with VHS.

Another example is GitLab CI which allows access to Docker daemon within a Docker container. A pipeline configuration would look like the following:

image: flemay/musketeers:latest
services:
  - docker:dind
variables:
  DOCKER_HOST: "tcp://docker:2375"

stages:
  - test

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - make test

Some references:

Jérôme Petazzoni’s excellent blog post on using Docker-in-Docker outlines some of the pros and cons of doing so (and some nasty gotchas you might run into).
Docker-in-Docker: Containerized CI Workflows (DockerCon 2023)