Managing Custom Buildpacks

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This topic describes how an admin can manage additional buildpacks in Cloud Foundry using the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface tool (cf CLI). If your application uses a language or framework that the Cloud Foundry system buildpacks do not support, you can take one of the following actions:

Add a Buildpack

Note: You must be a Cloud Foundry admin user to run the commands discussed in this section.

To add a buildpack, run the cf create-buildpack BUILDPACK PATH POSITION [--enable|--disable] command. The arguments to cf create-buildpack specify the following:

  • BUILDPACK specifies the buildpack name.

  • PATH specifies the location of the buildpack. PATH can point to a zip file, the URL of a zip file, or a local directory.

  • POSITION specifies where to place the buildpack in the detection priority list. For more information, see the Buildpack Detection topic.

  • enable or disable specifies whether to allow apps to be pushed with the buildpack. This argument is optional, and defaults to enable. When a buildpack is disabled, app developers cannot push apps using that buildpack.

To confirm that you have successfully added a buildpack, run cf buildpacks.

The following example shows the output from running the cf buildpacks command after an administrator adds a Python buildpack:

$ cf buildpacks
Getting buildpacks...

buildpack          position   enabled   locked   filename
ruby_buildpack     1          true      false    buildpack_ruby_v46-245-g2fc4ad8.zip
nodejs_buildpack   2          true      false    buildpack_nodejs_v8-177-g2b0a5cf.zip
java_buildpack     3          true      false    buildpack_java_v2.1.zip
python_buildpack   4          true      false    buildpack_python_v2.7.6.zip

Rename a Buildpack

To rename a buildpack, run cf rename-buildpack BUILDPACK-NAME NEW-BUILDPACK-NAME. Replace BUILDPACK-NAME with the original buildpack name, and NEW-BUILDPACK-NAME with the new buildpack name.

For more information about renaming buildpack, see the cf CLI documentation.

Update a Buildpack

$ cf update-buildpack BUILDPACK [-p PATH] [-i POSITION] [-s STACK] [--enable|--disable] [--lock|--unlock]

For more information about updating buildpacks, see the cf CLI documentation.

Delete a Buildpack

$ cf delete-buildpack BUILDPACK [-s STACK] [-f]

For more information about deleting buildpacks, see the cf CLI documentation.

Lock and Unlock a Buildpack

Every new version of Cloud Foundry includes an updated buildpack. By default, your deployment applies the most recent buildpack when you upgrade. In some cases, however, you may want to preserve an existing buildpack, rather than upgrade to the latest version. For example, if an app you deploy depends on a specific component in Buildpack A that is not available in Buildpack B, you may want to continue using Buildpack A.

The --lock flag lets you continue to use your existing buildpack even after you upgrade. Locked buildpacks are not updated when PCF updates. You must manually unlock them to update them.

If you elect to use the --unlock flag, your deployment will apply the most recent buildpack when you upgrade PCF.

cf update-buildpack BUILDPACK [-p PATH] [-i POSITION] [-s STACK] [--enable|--disable] [--lock|--unlock]

This feature is also available through the API. For more information, see Lock or unlock a Buildpack in the Cloud Foundry API documentation.

Disabling Custom Buildpacks

You can disable custom buildpacks using your Ops Manager PAS tile. From the Cloud Controller tab, check the Disable Custom Buildpacks checkbox, as shown in the image below.

By default, the cf CLI gives developers the option of using a custom buildpack when they deploy apps to PAS. To do so, they use the -b option to provide a custom buildpack URL with the cf push command. The Disable Custom Buildpacks checkbox prevents the -b option from being used with external buildpack URLs.

For more information about custom buildpacks, refer to the buildpacks section of the PCF documentation.