Introduction

Arion is a tool for building and running applications that consist of multiple docker containers using NixOS modules. It has special support for docker images that are built with Nix, for a smooth development experience and improved performance.

It is built on top of Docker Compose, which implements the container orchestration functionality.

Instead of configuring the compositions in YAML files like docker-compose.yaml, Arion uses the Nix language to declare the compositions. Because of this, Arion gives you the ability to declare your deployments, configuration and packaging in the same language. By replacing multiple tools with a single language, you decrease your mental load and you can more easily refactor and maintain your configurations.

Although Arion can be used as a Docker Compose with an improved configuration front end, there is more to be gained from integrating with Nix. In particular, the more structured approach of Nix compared to Dockerfiles allows the following:

• Build components of your image in parallel, automatically

• Share packages between images, regardless of the order they were added

• Improve performance by skipping container image creation

• Work with structured data instead of strings, templates and a multitude of expression languages

• Refactor across deployments, configuration and packaging

Arion allows to compose containers with different granularity:

• Minimal: Plain command using nixpkgs

• NixOS: run only one systemd service

• NixOS: run full OS

• Docker image from DockerHub

Installation

Nix

$ nix-env -iA arion -f https://github.com/hercules-ci/arion/tarball/master

NixOS

Add this module to your NixOS configuration:

{ ... }: {
  environment.systemPackages = [ (import (builtins.fetchTarball https://github.com/hercules-ci/arion/tarball/master) {}) ];
  virtualisation.docker.enable = true;
  users.extraUsers.myuser.extraGroups = ["docker"];
}

Usage

Arion is configured declaratively with two files:

arion-pkgs.nix

Arion needs arion-pkgs.nix to import nixpkgs, it’s contents can be as simple as:

import <nixpkgs> {}

or more sophisticated (recommended) setup with Niv.

arion-compose.nix

Describe containers using NixOS-style modules. There are a few options:

Minimal: Plain command using nixpkgs

examples/minimal/arion-compose.nix:

{ pkgs, ... }:
{
  config.docker-compose.services = {

    webserver = {
      service.useHostStore = true;
      service.command = [ "sh" "-c" ''
                  cd "$$WEB_ROOT"
                  ${pkgs.python3}/bin/python -m http.server
                '' ];
      service.ports = [
        "8000:8000" # host:container
      ];
      service.environment.WEB_ROOT = "${pkgs.nix.doc}/share/doc/nix/manual";
    };
  };
}

NixOS: run only one systemd service

examples/nixos-unit/arion-compose.nix:

{
  docker-compose.services.webserver = { config, pkgs, ... }: {

    nixos.configuration = {config, pkgs, ...}: {
      boot.isContainer = true;
      services.nginx.enable = true;
      services.nginx.virtualHosts.localhost.root = "${pkgs.nix.doc}/share/doc/nix/manual";
      system.build.run-nginx = pkgs.writeScript "run-nginx" ''
        #!${pkgs.bash}/bin/bash
        PATH='${config.systemd.services.nginx.environment.PATH}'
        echo nginx:x:${toString config.users.users.nginx.uid}:${toString config.users.groups.nginx.gid}:nginx web server user:/var/empty:/bin/sh >>/etc/passwd
        echo nginx:x:${toString config.users.groups.nginx.gid}:nginx >>/etc/group
        ${config.systemd.services.nginx.runner}
      '';
    };
    service.command = [ config.nixos.build.run-nginx ];
    service.useHostStore = true;
    service.ports = [
      "8000:80" # host:container
    ];
  };
}

NixOS: run full OS

examples/full-nixos/arion-compose.nix:

{
  docker-compose.services.webserver = { pkgs, ... }: {
    nixos.useSystemd = true;
    nixos.configuration.boot.tmpOnTmpfs = true;
    nixos.configuration.services.nginx.enable = true;
    nixos.configuration.services.nginx.virtualHosts.localhost.root = "${pkgs.nix.doc}/share/doc/nix/manual";
    service.useHostStore = true;
    service.ports = [
      "8000:80" # host:container
    ];
  };
}

Docker image from DockerHub

{
  docker-compose.services.postgres = {
    service.image = "postgres:10";
    service.volumes = [ "${toString ./.}/postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data" ];
    service.environment.POSTGRES_PASSWORD = "mydefaultpass";
  };
}

Run

Start containers and watch their logs:

$ arion up -d
$ arion logs -f

You can go to examples/*/ and run these commands to give it a quick try.

A full featured Nix command example

To see how Arion can be used in a project, have a look at todomvc-nix.

$ git clone https://github.com/nix-community/todomvc-nix
$ cd todomvc-nix/deploy/arion
$ arion up

Project Status

This project was born out of a process supervision need for local development environments while working on Hercules CI. (It was also born out of ancient Greek deities disguised as horses. More on that later.)

If you do want to use Arion for production environments, you’ll probably want to either build normal container images or manage garbage collection roots if you control the deployment host. Neither scenario is made easier by arion at this time.

Arion has run successfully on Linux distributions other than NixOS, but we only perform CI for Arion on NixOS.

How it works

Arion is essentially a thin wrapper around Nix and docker-compose. When it runs, it does the following:

• Evaluate the configuration using Nix, producing a docker-compose.yaml and a garbage collection root

• Invoke docker-compose

• Clean up the garbage collection root

Most of the interesting stuff happens in Arion’s Nix expressions, where it runs the module system (known from NixOS) and provides the configuration that makes the Docker Compose file do the things it needs to do.

One of the more interesting built-in modules is the host-store.nix module which performs the bind mounts to make the host Nix store available in the container.

FAQ

Do I need to use Hercules CI?

Nope, it’s just Nix and Docker Compose under the hood.

What about garbage collection?

Arion removes the need for garbage collecting docker images, delegating this task to Nix.

Arion creates a garbage collection root and cleans it up after completing the command. This means that arion up without -d is safe with respect to garbage collection. A deployment that is more serious than local development must leave a GC root on the deployment host. This use case is not supported as of now.

Why is my container not running latest code?

Restart it with arion restart <name> or if you’ve changed the image rebuild them using arion up -d --always-recreate-deps <name>.

What is messing with my environment variables?

Docker Compose performs its own environment variable substitution. This can be a little annoying in services.command for example. Either reference a script from pkgs.writeScript or escape the dollar sign as $$.

Why name it Arion?

Arion comes from Greek mythology. Poseidon, the god of _Docker the seas had his eye on Demeter. Demeter tried to trick him by disguising as a horse, but Poseidon saw through the deception and they had Arion.

So Arion is a super fast divine horse; the result of some weird mixing. Also it talks.

(And we feel morally obliged to name our stuff after Greek mythology)