Article #2: Dependency and Runtime Management
This article is the second in a three-part series, exploring how open-source Buildpacks and their ecosystem offer a compelling alternative to Docker for container image creation. The first article covered how Buildpacks simplify the build process and image creation. In this article, we will explore how Buildpacks excel in dependency and runtime management, including how they oversee language runtimes, dependency installation and security patching.
Managing dependencies and runtime environments is a critical yet time-consuming part of containerization. Docker offers flexibility, but this often results in additional complexity and effort for developers. Buildpacks simplify and automate many of these tasks, offering an easy way to build secure, optimized containers. Let’s dive in.
Dependency Management: A Smarter Approach
With Docker, developers are responsible for explicitly managing dependencies in their Dockerfiles. For example:
# Need to maintain a requirements.txt file and copy it
COPY requirements.txt /app/
RUN pip install -r /app/requirements.txt
While straightforward, this process requires you to list and install dependencies manually, and there is always a chance of version conflicts and bloated images when unused dependencies are included. Moreover, a recent survey highlighted that dependency confusion was a major cause of supply chain attacks.
Buildpacks streamline this by detecting and installing only the necessary dependencies automatically. When you use the pack CLI, Buildpacks analyze your application code to determine the exact dependencies required.
Language Runtime Installation
In Docker, developers need to specify and install the appropriate runtime for their applications. This approach requires constant maintenance to ensure runtimes are up to date. It becomes particularly challenging when managing multiple applications with different runtime requirements.
For example:
# Application A
FROM ubuntu:22.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y python3.9
# Application B
FROM ubuntu:22.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y python3.10
Buildpacks eliminate this hassle. They automatically detect the language and version your application needs and install the appropriate runtime.
Runtime Environment Setup
In Docker, setting up the runtime environment involves manually configuring base images, installing language runtimes and adding system-level dependencies.
For instance, a Python application connecting to a PostgreSQL database would require installing Python, the libpq-dev library and application-specific libraries such as psycopg2. Buildpacks simplify this process by detecting your application’s requirements — both language-specific and system-level — and preparing the environment automatically.
Buildpacks manage everything, from installing the correct Python version to adding native libraries, thereby saving developers time and reducing potential version conflict headaches.
Security Patching: Keeping Your Containers Safe
Security patching is a constant concern in containerized environments. A recent report highlighted that 87% of container images running in production have critical vulnerabilities. With Docker, developers can ensure their base images, dependencies and runtimes are patched against known vulnerabilities.
With Buildpacks, security patching becomes a part of the ecosystem. Buildpacks communities actively maintain builder images and dependencies, applying updates and patches automatically. Each community has its own standards; Google regularly scans its base images for security issues, while Paketo Buildpacks releases stack updates for high and critical CVEs within 48 hours of the patch release and within two weeks for low and medium ones.
Buildpacks also has a unique rebase image feature that allows you to update a layer of your container’s images — with an update to the OS layer — for example, without rebuilding the entire image. This is especially useful if you need to apply a patch to your entire infrastructure that may have hundreds of different container images.
Easily Generate SBOM
The importance of Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) has increased substantially in recent years. The National Security Agency (NSA) released a guide on SBOM best practices, and the federal government issued an executive order to improve cybersecurity in the U.S., which includes a provision that requires any organization selling into the federal government to produce an SBOM.
With one command, Buildpacks pack CLI allows you to generate an SBOM of your container image and export it in SPDX, Syft JSON and CycloneDX formats, which can then be imported into vulnerability tracking and analysis tools. The best part is for every build, the SBOMs are automatically updated — set and forget.
Make the Management of Dependencies and Runtime a Thing of the Past
As boring as it is, dependency and runtime management is an often-overlooked challenge in containerization, but it is critical for creating secure, reliable and efficient containers. Additionally, it can sometimes be a headache with conflicting issues. Buildpacks shine by automating dependency installation, runtime configuration and security patching, thereby saving time and reducing errors.
In the final article of this series, we will explore how Buildpacks enhance portability, lifecycle and performance, focusing on image optimization, scalability and seamless updates. Stay tuned!
