Compiling your Quarkus applications to native executables

Red Hat build of Quarkus 1.7

Abstract

This guide shows you how to compile the Quarkus Getting Started project into a native executable and how to configure and test the native executable.

Preface

As an application developer, you can use Red Hat build of Quarkus to create microservices written in Java that run on OpenShift and serverless environments. Applications compiled to native executables have small memory footprints and fast startup times.

This guide shows you how to compile the Quarkus Getting Started project into a native executable and how to configure and test the native executable. You will need the application created in Getting started with Quarkus.

Building a native executable with Red Hat build of Quarkus covers:

  • Building a native executable with a single command using a container runtime such as Podman or Docker
  • Creating a custom container image using the produced native executable
  • Creating a container image using the OpenShift Docker build strategy
  • Deploying the Quarkus native application to OpenShift
  • Configuring the native executable
  • Testing the native executable

Prerequisites

  • OpenJDK (JDK) 11 is installed and the JAVA_HOME environment variable specifies the location of the Java SDK.

    • Log in to the Red Hat Customer Portal to download Red Hat build of Open JDK from the Software Downloads page.
  • An OCI (Open Container Initiative) compatible container runtime, such as Podman or Docker.
  • A completed Quarkus Getting Started project.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. We are beginning with these four terms: master, slave, blacklist, and whitelist. Because of the enormity of this endeavor, these changes will be implemented gradually over several upcoming releases. For more details, see our CTO Chris Wright’s message.

Chapter 1. Producing a native executable

You can produce a native executable from your Quarkus application using a container runtime such as Podman or Docker. Quarkus produces a binary executable using a builder image, which you can use together with the Red Hat Universal Base Images RHEL8-UBI and RHEL8-UBI minimal. Red Hat build of Quarkus 1.7 uses registry.access.redhat.com/quarkus/mandrel-20-rhel8:20.3 as a default for the quarkus.native.builder-image property.

The native executable for your application contains the application code, required libraries, Java APIs, and a reduced version of a virtual machine (VM). The smaller VM base improves the startup time of the application and produces a minimal disk footprint.

Procedure

  1. Open the Getting Started project pom.xml file and verify that it includes the native profile:

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>native</id>
            <properties>
                <quarkus.package.type>native</quarkus.package.type>
            </properties>
        </profile>
    </profiles>
    Note

    Using Quarkus native profile allows you to run both the native executable and the native image tests.

  2. Build a native executable using one of the following methods:

    1. Build a native executable with Docker:

      ./mvnw package -Pnative -Dquarkus.native.container-build=true
    2. Build a native executable with Podman:

      ./mvnw package -Pnative -Dquarkus.native.container-build=true -Dquarkus.native.container-runtime=podman

      These commands create the getting-started-*-runner binary in the target directory.

      Important

      Compiling a Quarkus application to a native executable consumes a lot of memory during analysis and optimization. You can limit the amount of memory used during native compilation by setting the quarkus.native.native-image-xmx configuration property. Setting low memory limits might increase the build time.

  3. Run the native executable:

    ./target/getting-started-*-runner

    When you build the native executable the prod profile is enabled and the Quarkus native tests run using the prod profile. You can change this using the quarkus.test.native-image-profile property.

Chapter 2. Creating a custom container image

You can create a container image from your Quarkus application using one of the following methods:

  • Creating a container manually
  • Creating a container using the OpenShift Docker build
Important

Compiling a Quarkus application to a native executable consumes a lot of memory during analysis and optimization. You can limit the amount of memory used during native compilation by setting the quarkus.native.native-image-xmx configuration property. Setting low memory limits might increase the build time.

2.1. Creating a container manually

This section shows you how to manually create a container image with your application for Linux X86_64. When you produce a native image using the Quarkus Native container it creates an executable that targets the Linux X86_64 operating system. If your host operating system is different from this, you will not be able to run the binary directly and you will need to create a container manually.

Your Quarkus Getting Started project includes a Dockerfile.native in the src/main/docker directory with the following content:

FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal
WORKDIR /work/
COPY target/*-runner /work/application
RUN chmod 775 /work
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["./application", "-Dquarkus.http.host=0.0.0.0"]
Universal Base Image (UBI)

The Dockerfiles use UBI as a base image. This base image was designed to work in containers. The Dockerfiles use the minimal version of the base image to reduce the size of the produced image.

Procedure

  1. Build a native Linux executable using one of the following methods:

    1. Build a native executable with Docker:

      ./mvnw package -Pnative -Dquarkus.native.container-build=true
    2. Build a native executable with Podman:

      ./mvnw package -Pnative -Dquarkus.native.container-build=true -Dquarkus.native.container-runtime=podman
  2. Build the container image using one of the following methods:

    1. Build the container image with Docker:

      docker build -f src/main/docker/Dockerfile.native -t quarkus-quickstart/getting-started .
    2. Build the container image with Podman

      podman build -f src/main/docker/Dockerfile.native -t quarkus-quickstart/getting-started .
  3. Run the container:

    1. Run the container with Docker:

      docker run -i --rm -p 8080:8080 quarkus-quickstart/getting-started
    2. Run the container with Podman:

      podman run -i --rm -p 8080:8080 quarkus-quickstart/getting-started

For information about deploying Quarkus Maven applications on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, see Deploying your Quarkus applications on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

2.2. Creating a container using the OpenShift Docker build

You can create a container image for your Quarkus application using the OpenShift Docker build strategy. This strategy creates a container using a build configuration in the cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster and the latest version of the OpenShift CLI (oc) is installed. For information about installing oc, see the "Installing the CLI" section of the Installing and configuring OpenShift Container Platform clusters guide.
  • A URL for the OpenShift API endpoint.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift CLI:

    oc login -u <username_url>
  2. Create a new project in OpenShift:

    oc new-project <project_name>
  3. Create a build config based on the src/main/docker/Dockerfile.native file:

    cat src/main/docker/Dockerfile.native | oc new-build --name <build_name> --strategy=docker --dockerfile -
  4. Build the project:

    oc start-build <build_name> --from-dir .
  5. Deploy the project to OpenShift:

    oc new-app <build_name>

Chapter 3. Native executable configuration properties

Configuration properties define how the native executable is generated. You can configure your Quarkus application using the application.properties file.

Configuration properties

The following table lists the configuration properties that you can set to define how the native executable is generated:

PropertyDescriptionTypeDefault

quarkus.native.additional-build-args

Additional arguments to pass to the build process.

list of string

 

quarkus.native.enable-http-url-handler

Enable HTTP URL handler. This allows you to do URL.openConnection() for HTTP URLs.

boolean

true

quarkus.native.enable-https-url-handler

Enable HTTPS URL handler. This allows you to do URL.openConnection() for HTTPS URLs.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.enable-all-security-services

Add all security services to the native image.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.add-all-charsets

Add all character sets to the native image. This increases image size.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.graalvm-home

Contains the path of the Graal distribution.

string

${GRAALVM_HOME:}

quarkus.native.java-home

Contains the path of the JDK.

File

${java.home}

quarkus.native.native-image-xmx

The maximum Java heap used to generate the native image.

string

 

quarkus.native.debug-build-process

Wait for a debugger to attach to the build process before running the native image build. This is an advanced option for those familiar with GraalVM internals.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.publish-debug-build-process-port

Publish the debug port when building with docker and debug-build-process is true.

boolean

true

quarkus.native.cleanup-server

Restart the native image server.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.enable-isolates

Enable isolates to improve the memory management.

boolean

true

quarkus.native.enable-fallback-images

Create a JVM based fallback image if native image fails.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.enable-server

Use native image server. This can speed up compilation but can cause changes to drop due to cache invalidation issues.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.auto-service-loader-registration

Automatically register all META-INF/services entries.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.dump-proxies

Dump the bytecode of all proxies for inspection.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.container-build

Build using a container runtime. Docker is used by default.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.builder-image

The docker image to build the image.

string

registry.access.redhat.com/quarkus/mandrel-20-rhel8:20.3

quarkus.native.container-runtime

The container runtime used build the image. For example, Docker.

string

 

quarkus.native.container-runtime-options

Options to pass to the container runtime.

list of string

 

quarkus.native.enable-vm-inspection

Enable VM introspection in the image.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.full-stack-traces

Enable full stack traces in the image.

boolean

true

quarkus.native.enable-reports

Generate reports on call paths and included packages/classes/methods.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.report-exception-stack-traces

Report exceptions with a full stack trace.

boolean

true

quarkus.native.report-errors-at-runtime

Report errors at runtime. This may cause your application to fail at runtime if you are using unsupported feature.

boolean

false

quarkus.native.resources.includes

A comma separated list of globs to match resource paths that should be added to the native image. Use slash (/) as a path separator on all platforms. Globs must not start with slash. For example you have src/main/resources/ignored.png and src/main/resources/foo/selected.png in your source tree and one of your dependency JARs contains bar/some.txt file, with the following configuration quarkus.native.resources.includes = foo/,bar//*.txt the files src/main/resources/foo/selected.png and bar/some.txt will be included in the native image, while src/main/resources/ignored.png will not be included. To find out more about the glob features see the Supported glob features and its description.

list of string

 

quarkus.native.debug.enabled

Enable debug and generate debug symbols in a separate .debug file.

boolean

false

Supported glob features and its description

The following table lists the supported glob features and its description:

Character

Feature description

*

Matches a possibly empty sequence of characters that does not contain slash (/).

**

Matches a possibly empty sequence of characters that might contain slash (/).

?

Matches one character, but not slash.

[abc]

Matches one character from the range specified in the bracket, but not slash.

[a-z]

Matches one character from the range specified in the bracket, but not slash.

[!abc]

Matches one character not specified in the bracket; does not match slash.

[a-z]

Matches one character outside the range specified in the bracket; does not match slash.

{one,two,three}

Matches any of the alternating tokens separated by comma; the tokens may contain wildcards, nested alternations and ranges.

\

The escape character. There are three levels of escaping: application.properties parser, MicroProfile Config list converter, and Glob parser. All three levels use the backslash as the escaping character.

3.1. Configuring memory consumption for Quarkus native compilation

Compiling a Quarkus application to a native executable consumes a lot of memory during analysis and optimization. You can limit the amount of memory used during native compilation by setting the quarkus.native.native-image-xmx configuration property. Setting low memory limits might increase the build time.

Procedure

  • Use one of the following methods to set a value for the quarkus.native.native-image-xmx property to limit the memory consumption during the native image build time:

    • Using the application.properties file:

      quarkus.native.native-image-xmx=<maximum_memory>
    • Setting system properties:

      mvn -Pnative -Dquarkus.native.container-build=true -Dquarkus.native.native-image-xmx=<maximum_memory>

      This command builds the native executable with Docker. Add -Dquarkus.native.container-runtime=podman argument to use Podman.

Note

For example, to set the memory limit to 6 GB, enter quarkus.native.native-image-xmx=6g. The value must be a multiple of 1024 greater than 2MB. Append the letter m or M to indicate megabytes, or g or G to indicate gigabytes.

Chapter 4. Testing the native executable

Test the application running in the native mode to test the functionality of the native executable. Use @NativeImageTest annotation to build the native executable and run test against the http endpoints.

Procedure

  1. Open the pom.xml file and verify that the native profile contains the following elements:

    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${surefire-plugin.version}</version>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <goals>
                    <goal>integration-test</goal>
                    <goal>verify</goal>
                </goals>
                <configuration>
                    <systemPropertyVariables>
                        <native.image.path>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}-runner</native.image.path>
                        <java.util.logging.manager>org.jboss.logmanager.LogManager</java.util.logging.manager>
                        <maven.home>${maven.home}</maven.home>
                    </systemPropertyVariables>
                </configuration>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>

    The failsafe-maven-plugin runs integration test and indicates the location of the produced native executable.

  2. Open the src/test/java/org/acme/quickstart/NativeGreetingResourceIT.java file and verify that it includes the following content:

    package org.acme.quickstart;
    
    
    import io.quarkus.test.junit.NativeImageTest;
    
    @NativeImageTest 1
    public class NativeGreetingResourceIT extends GreetingResourceTest { 2
    
        // Run the same tests
    
    }
    1
    Use another test runner that starts the application from the native file before the tests. The executable is retrieved using the native.image.path system property configured in the Failsafe Maven Plugin.
    2
    This example extends the GreetingResourceTest, but you can also create a new test.
  3. Run the test:

    ./mvnw verify -Pnative

    The following example shows the output of this command:

    ./mvnw verify -Pnative
    ...
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]     universe:     587.26 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]      (parse):   2,247.59 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]     (inline):   1,985.70 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]    (compile):  14,922.77 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]      compile:  20,361.28 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]        image:   2,228.30 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]        write:     364.35 ms
    [getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner:18820]      [total]:  52,777.76 ms
    [INFO]
    [INFO] --- maven-failsafe-plugin:2.22.1:integration-test (default) @ getting-started ---
    [INFO]
    [INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
    [INFO]  T E S T S
    [INFO] -------------------------------------------------------
    [INFO] Running org.acme.quickstart.NativeGreetingResourceIT
    Executing [/data/home/gsmet/git/quarkus-quickstarts/getting-started/target/getting-started-1.0-SNAPSHOT-runner, -Dquarkus.http.port=8081, -Dtest.url=http://localhost:8081, -Dquarkus.log.file.path=build/quarkus.log]
    2019-04-15 11:33:20,348 INFO  [io.quarkus] (main) Quarkus 999-SNAPSHOT started in 0.002s. Listening on: http://[::]:8081
    2019-04-15 11:33:20,348 INFO  [io.quarkus] (main) Installed features: [cdi, resteasy]
    [INFO] Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.387 s - in org.acme.quickstart.NativeGreetingResourceIT
    ...
    Note

    Quarkus waits for 60 seconds for the native image to start before automatically failing the native tests. You can change this duration using the quarkus.test.native-image-wait-time system property.

    You can extend the wait time using the following command where <duration> is the wait time in seconds:

    ./mvnw verify -Pnative -Dquarkus.test.native-image-wait-time=<duration>

4.1. Excluding tests when running as a native executable

When you run tests against your native application, you can only interact with its HTTP endpoints. Tests do not run natively, therefore they cannot link against your application’s code like they can when running on the JVM.

You can share your test class between JVM and native executions and exclude certain tests with the @DisabledOnNativeImage annotation to run them only on the JVM.

4.2. Testing an existing native executable

You can test against the existing executable build. This allows you to run multiple sets of tests in stages on the binary after it has been build.

Procedure

  • Run a test against an already built native executable:

    ./mvnw test-compile failsafe:integration-test

    This command runs the test against the existing native image using Failsafe Maven Plugin.

  • Alternatively, you can specify the path to the native executable with the following command where <path> is the native image path:

    ./mvnw test-compile failsafe:integration-test -Dnative.image.path=<path>

Chapter 5. Additional resources

Revised on 2021-04-19 12:03:05 UTC

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