Binary buildpack

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Use the binary buildpack to run arbitrary binary web servers.

Push an app

Specify the binary buildpack to stage an app as a binary file. On a command line, use cf push MY-AWESOME-APP with the -b option to specify the buildpack.

For example:

$ cf push MY-AWESOME-APP -b https://github.com/cloudfoundry/binary-buildpack.git

You can provide Cloud Foundry with the shell command to run your binary in the following two ways:

• Procfile: In the root directory of your app, add a Procfile that specifies a web task:

  web: ./app
  

• Command line: Use cf push MY-AWESOME-APP with the -c option:

  $ cf push MY-AWESOME-APP -c './app' -b binary_buildpack
  

Compile your binary

Cloud Foundry expects your binary to bind to the port specified by the PORT environment variable.

The following example in Go binds a binary to the PORT environment variable:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "os"
)

func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello, %s", "world!")
}

func main() {
    http.HandleFunc("/", handler)
    http.ListenAndServe(":"+os.Getenv("PORT"), nil)
}

Your binary should run without any additional runtime dependencies on the cflinuxfs3 or lucid64 root filesystem (rootfs). Any such dependencies should be statically linked to the binary.

To avoid security exposure, verify that you migrate your apps and custom buildpacks to use the cflinuxfs4 stack based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish). The cflinuxfs3 stack is based on Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver), which reaches end of standard support in April 2023.

To boot a Docker container running the cflinuxfs3 filesystem, run the following command:

$ docker run -it cloudfoundry/cflinuxfs3 bash

To boot a Docker container running the lucid64 filesystem, run the following command:

$ docker run -it cloudfoundry/lucid64 bash

To compile the above Go application on the rootfs, golang must be installed. apt-get install golang and go build app.go will produce an app binary.

When deploying your binary to Cloud Foundry, use cf push with the -s option to specify the root filesystem it should run against.

$ cf push MY-AWESOME-APP -s (cflinuxfs3|lucid64)

BOSH configured custom trusted certificate support

Your platform operator can configure the platform to add the custom certificates into the application container. The custom trusted certificates are added to the /etc/ssl/certs directory and can be used by binary applications.

For more information, see Configuring Trusted System Certificates for Applications.

.NET apps

.NET Core on Windows

To run .NET Core apps on the Windows stack, you must use the Binary buildpack. Follow the steps below to configure your Cloud Foundry manifest appropriately.

1. In the app manifest file, specify the windows stack and a custom start command. This file should be in the same folder as your .csproj file and be marked copy always.

   ---
   applications:
   - name: MY-AWESOME-APP
     stack: windows
     command: cmd /c .\MY-AWESOME-APP --urls=http://0.0.0.0:%PORT%
   

2. Publish the project using the dotnet CLI or Visual Studio.

   $ dotnet publish -o ./publish -r win10-x64 -f netcoreapp2.1
   

3. A publish folder should now exist. Navigate to this publish folder and verify the manifest.yml file exists. Run cf push to deploy your app.

   $ cd publish
   $ cf push MY-AWESOME-APP
   

.NET Framework

To run a self hosted application using OWIN or another kind of .NET Framework app that requires a TCP port, compile the app to myapp.exe and use the Binary buildpack. For an example, see the following manifest:

applications:
- name: MY-AWESOME-APP
  stack: windows
  command: cmd /c .\MY-AWESOME-APP --server.urls=http://0.0.0.0:%PORT%

Console Apps

Console apps are not recommended to run on Cloud Foundry because they do not normally run as a single instance and are not highly available. If you need to run a console app on Cloud Foundry, see Console Applications in the .NET Cookbook.

For information about deploying different types of .NET apps, follow the links in the table below.

Help and support

Join the #buildpacks channel in our Slack community if you need any further assistance.

For more information about using and extending the binary buildpack in Cloud Foundry, see the binary-buildpack GitHub repository.

You can find current information about this buildpack on the binary buildpack release page in GitHub.