[RFC #000] - Multi-arch support in CNB Ecosystem

[jjbustamante]

The purpose of this issue is to track the work related to support multi-architecture image in CNB ecosystem, it is a complex project and we will try to divide it in phases. in each phase we will try to provide something valuable for the community and get feedback.

Phase 1

We started with a project developed during the LFX 2023 term, the goal for this phase is to release a set of commands for handling Image Index on pack.

Update May 2024

All the required PR were merged! we are expecting the feature to be included on pack 0.34.0

Update April 2024

Unfortunately we haven't merged the PR developed during the LFX 2023 because we were missing some test coverage, we are working on adding some tests an polish the code a little bit and the expectation is to include these features on pack 0.34.0 or 0.35.0, once this code is merged into main, we will keep working on Phase 2

RFC

• Proposal for adding commands to handle manifest list in pack #283

Pack

• Add command pack manifest create to create a manifest list pack#1678
• Add command pack manifest annotate to update information on manifest list pack#1718
• Add command pack manifest add to add an image to a manifest list pack#1719
• Add command pack manifest push to push an manifest list to a remote registry pack#1720
• Add command pack manifest remove to remove a manifest list pack#1721
• Add command pack manifest inspect to display a manifest list pack#1722
• It would be nice to support easily creating a manifest list packages and builders pack#1460
• Released in pack version 0.31.0, estimate: 0.34.0

Imgutil

• Create an new interface to handle Manifest Lists imgutil#188

Documentation:

• Add documentation for new experimental command pack manifest docs#710

Phase 2

After implementing the primitives to handle a Image Index, we will focus on solving the requirement of packaging builders and buildpacks for different os/arch

The focus of this phase will be:

• pack buildpack package multi-arch support
• pack builder create multi-arch support

Update May 2024

We decided to move a little bit our 0.34.0 release date but include this feature in this version!

Update April 2024

This phase requires the code from phase 1 to be available, but during KubeCon EU 2024 we presented a demo with a PoC implementation of the RFC.

RFC

• Support for multi-platform artifacts when creating builders and buildpack package #295

Pack

• Provide a way to specify desired platform when creating packages and builders pack#1459
• Add a new --platform or --target flag to pack build command to avoid breaking M1 workflow users after multi-platform is released pack#2154
• Released in pack version estimated 0.34.0

Documentation:

• Add documentation for creating a multi-platform buildpack package docs#708
• Add documentation for creating multi-platform builders docs#709

Phase 3

In this phase, we assume the existence of Builders and Buildpacks addressable by Image Index

We want to focus on solving the problem to make pack build and output applications images for different os/arch.

• pack build multi-arch support

Update March 2024

We started working on a LFX mentorship to develop a proof of concept to run pack build using buildkit behind de scenes

RFC

• TODO - create an RFC to discuss this option

Pack

• Multi arch image build support pack#1570

Documentation:

• TODO - https://github.com/buildpacks/docs/issues/

Maintainers: when closing this issue as completed, submit a PR to update the Status of the RFC to Implemented.

[vnobo]

good job

[zs-dima]

+1 ARM64 is very much in demand

[jjbustamante]

Update - 05/31/2024

• We just released pack 0.34.0, this new version included phase 1 and phase 2 capabilities
• Paketo already published their jammy buildpackless builder, and their Java buildpacks for amd64 and arm64 architectures. They are working very hard for support and test their other buildpacks.
• Other buildpack authors like Google and Heroku will probably do the same thing.

Again, the problem of supporting multi-platform can't be solved in just one place, all the components need to be available for multi-platform, but pack 0.34.0 was a big win on that direction.