Pivotal Build Service

Build Service is a tool that transforms source code into container images by utilizing the OSS Cloud Native Buildpacks project to execute reproducible builds that adhere to modern container standards. Additionally, Build Service employs declarative logic to automate image re-builds to reduce devops toil and security vulnerability.

Understanding the differences between declarative and imperative programming models as they relate to producing container images from source code is key to deriving the most value possible from Build Service. Pivotal Application Service, based on Cloud Foundry, currently follows an imperative model. The user instructs the platform to perform various tasks through the cf push model. Similarly, the Cloud Native Buildpacks project, follows an imperative model. Users perform commands like build and rebase using the pack CLI to trigger one-time execution of these commands.

The pb (Pivotal Build) CLI doesn’t have commands like push, build, or rebase. Instead, users utilize pb to declare and modify two configurations.

1. The “Image” config: Users describe their app through several inputs, and build service will deliver new images that resolve discrepancies between how the app is described and the latest version of the image. When the user requests the latest version of an application dependency, and that dependency becomes available, a new image is automatically built.

2. The “Team” config: An extension to build service that provides access control to image configs using UAA.

These configurations help platform engineers and application developers enjoy the benefits of containerized software development at enterprise scale more easily and securely.

Helpful Links

• For more information on isntalling Build Service, visit Installing.md

• For more information on using the pb CLI to control Build Service, visit Using.md

• For information on setting up an optional builder image webhook, visit Webhooks.md

Troubleshooting

Reach out to your Pivotal account team or the Build Service team directly:

• Stephen Levine - Product Manager/Senior Software Engineer (slevine@pivotal.io)
• Matt Gibson - Product Manager (mgibson@pivotal.io)
• Matt McNew - Senior Software Engineer (mmcnew@pivotal.io)