Starting a Build

Manually start a new build from an existing build configuration in your current project using the following command:

$ oc start-build <buildconfig_name>

Re-run a build using the --from-build flag:

$ oc start-build --from-build=<build_name>

Specify the --follow flag to stream the build’s logs in stdout:

$ oc start-build <buildconfig_name> --follow

Specify the --env flag to set any desired environment variable for the build:

$ oc start-build <buildconfig_name> --env=<key>=<value>

Rather than relying on a Git source pull or a Dockerfile for a build, you can can also start a build by directly pushing your source, which could be the contents of a Git or SVN working directory, a set of prebuilt binary artifacts you want to deploy, or a single file. This can be done by specifying one of the following options for the start-build command:

Option Description

--from-dir=<directory>

Specifies a directory that will be archived and used as a binary input for the build.

--from-file=<file>

Specifies a single file that will be the only file in the build source. The file is placed in the root of an empty directory with the same file name as the original file provided.

--from-repo=<local_source_repo>

Specifies a path to a local repository to use as the binary input for a build. Add the --commit option to control which branch, tag, or commit is used for the build.

When passing any of these options directly to the build, the contents are streamed to the build and override the current build source settings.

Builds triggered from binary input will not preserve the source on the server, so rebuilds triggered by base image changes will use the source specified in the build configuration.

For example, the following command sends the contents of a local Git repository as an archive from the tag v2 and starts a build:

$ oc start-build hello-world --from-repo=../hello-world --commit=v2

Canceling a Build

Manually cancel a build using the web console, or with the following CLI command:

$ oc cancel-build <build_name>

Cancel multiple builds at the same time:

$ oc cancel-build <build1_name> <build2_name> <build3_name>

Cancel all builds created from the build configuration:

$ oc cancel-build bc/<buildconfig_name>

Cancel all builds in a given state (for example, new or pending), ignoring the builds in other states:

$ oc cancel-build bc/<buildconfig_name>  --state=<state>

Deleting a BuildConfig

Delete a BuildConfig using the following command:

$ oc delete bc <BuildConfigName>

This will also delete all builds that were instantiated from this BuildConfig. Specify the --cascade=false flag if you do not want to delete the builds:

$ oc delete --cascade=false bc <BuildConfigName>

Viewing Build Details

You can view build details with the web console or by using the oc describe CLI command:

$ oc describe build <build_name>

This displays information such as:

  • The build source

  • The build strategy

  • The output destination

  • Digest of the image in the destination registry

  • How the build was created

If the build uses the Docker or Source strategy, the oc describe output also includes information about the source revision used for the build, including the commit ID, author, committer, and message.

Accessing Build Logs

You can access build logs using the web console or the CLI.

To stream the logs using the build directly:

$ oc logs -f build/<build_name>

To stream the logs of the latest build for a build configuration:

$ oc logs -f bc/<buildconfig_name>

To return the logs of a given version build for a build configuration:

$ oc logs --version=<number> bc/<buildconfig_name>

Log Verbosity

To enable more verbose output, pass the BUILD_LOGLEVEL environment variable as part of the sourceStrategy or dockerStrategy in a BuildConfig:

sourceStrategy:
...
  env:
    - name: "BUILD_LOGLEVEL"
      value: "2" (1)
1 Adjust this value to the desired log level.
A platform administrator can set the default build verbosity for the entire OpenShift Container Platform instance by configuring env/BUILD_LOGLEVEL for the BuildDefaults admission controller. This default can be overridden by specifying BUILD_LOGLEVEL in a given BuildConfig. You can specify a higher priority override on the command line for non-binary builds by passing --build-loglevel to oc start-build.

Available log levels for Source builds are as follows:

Level 0

Produces output from containers running the assemble script and all encountered errors. This is the default.

Level 1

Produces basic information about the executed process.

Level 2

Produces very detailed information about the executed process.

Level 3

Produces very detailed information about the executed process, and a listing of the archive contents.

Level 4

Currently produces the same information as level 3.

Level 5

Produces everything mentioned on previous levels and additionally provides docker push messages.