docs/build/ci/github-actions/examples.md

title	description	keywords
Example workflows	Docker GitHub Actions workflow examples.	ci, github actions, gha, examples

This page showcases different examples of how you can customize and use the Docker GitHub Actions in your CI pipelines.

Manage tags and labels

If you want an "automatic" tag management and OCI Image Format Specification{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} for labels, you can do it in a dedicated setup step. The following workflow will use the Docker Metadata Action{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} to handle tags and labels based on GitHub Actions events and Git metadata:

{% raw %}

name: ci

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 10 * * *"
  push:
    branches:
      - "**"
    tags:
      - "v*.*.*"
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Docker meta
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v4
        with:
          # list of Docker images to use as base name for tags
          images: |
            name/app
            ghcr.io/username/app            
          # generate Docker tags based on the following events/attributes
          tags: |
            type=schedule
            type=ref,event=branch
            type=ref,event=pr
            type=semver,pattern={{version}}
            type=semver,pattern={{major}}.{{minor}}
            type=semver,pattern={{major}}
            type=sha            
      -
        name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v2
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Login to GHCR
        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          push: ${{ github.event_name != 'pull_request' }}
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}

{% endraw %}

Export image to Docker

You may want your build result to be available in the Docker client through docker images to be able to use it in another step of your workflow:

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Build
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          load: true
          tags: myimage:latest
      -
        name: Inspect
        run: |
          docker image inspect myimage:latest          

Test your image before pushing it

In some cases, you might want to validate that the image works as expected before pushing it.

The following workflow implements several steps to achieve this:

• Build and export the image to Docker
• Test your image
• Multi-platform build and push the image

{% raw %}

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

env:
  TEST_TAG: user/app:test
  LATEST_TAG: user/app:latest

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v2
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Build and export to Docker
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          load: true
          tags: ${{ env.TEST_TAG }}
      -
        name: Test
        run: |
          docker run --rm ${{ env.TEST_TAG }}          
      -
        name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          platforms: linux/amd64,linux/arm64
          push: true
          tags: ${{ env.LATEST_TAG }}

{% endraw %}

Note

This workflow doesn't actually build the linux/amd64 image twice. The image is built once, and the following steps uses the internal cache for from the first Build and push step. The second Build and push step only builds linux/arm64.

Local registry

For testing purposes you may need to create a local registry{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} to push images into:

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      registry:
        image: registry:2
        ports:
          - 5000:5000
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v2
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
        with:
          driver-opts: network=host
      -
        name: Build and push to local registry
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: localhost:5000/name/app:latest
      -
        name: Inspect
        run: |
          docker buildx imagetools inspect localhost:5000/name/app:latest          

Share built image between jobs

As each job is isolated in its own runner, you can't use your built image between jobs, except if you're using self-hosted runners{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} However, you can pass data between jobs{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} in a workflow using the actions/upload-artifact{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} and actions/download-artifact{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} actions:

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Build and export
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          tags: myimage:latest
          outputs: type=docker,dest=/tmp/myimage.tar
      -
        name: Upload artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: myimage
          path: /tmp/myimage.tar

  use:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    steps:
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Download artifact
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: myimage
          path: /tmp
      -
        name: Load image
        run: |
          docker load --input /tmp/myimage.tar
          docker image ls -a          

Named contexts

You can define additional build contexts, and access them in your Dockerfile with FROM name or --from=name. When Dockerfile defines a stage with the same name it's overwritten.

This can be useful with GitHub Actions to reuse results from other builds or pin an image to a specific tag in your workflow.

Pin image to a tag

Replace alpine:latest with a pinned one:

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM alpine
RUN echo "Hello World"

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Build
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          build-contexts: |
            alpine=docker-image://alpine:3.16            
          tags: myimage:latest

Use image in subsequent steps

By default, the Docker Setup Buildx{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} action uses docker-container as a build driver, so built Docker images aren't loaded automatically.

With named contexts you can reuse the built image:

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM alpine
RUN echo "Hello World"

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Build base image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: base
          load: true
          tags: my-base-image:latest
      -
        name: Build
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          build-contexts: |
            alpine=docker-image://my-base-image:latest            
          tags: myimage:latest

Copy images between registries

Multi-platform images built using Buildx can be copied from one registry to another using the buildx imagetools create command:

{% raw %}

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v2
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Login to GitHub Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          platforms: linux/amd64,linux/arm64
          push: true
          tags: |
            user/app:latest
            user/app:1.0.0            
      -
        name: Push image to GHCR
        run: |
          docker buildx imagetools create \
            --tag ghcr.io/user/app:latest \
            --tag ghcr.io/user/app:1.0.0 \
            user/app:latest          

{% endraw %}

Update Docker Hub repository description

You can update the Docker Hub repository description using a third party action called Docker Hub Description{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} with this action:

{% raw %}

name: ci

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"

jobs:
  docker:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      -
        name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      -
        name: Set up QEMU
        uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v2
      -
        name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
      -
        name: Login to Docker Hub
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
      -
        name: Build and push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: user/app:latest
      -
        name: Update repo description
        uses: peter-evans/dockerhub-description@v3
        with:
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
          repository: user/app

{% endraw %}