Appendix A. The Source-to-Image (S2I) build process

Source-to-Image (S2I) is a build tool for generating reproducible Docker-formatted container images from online SCM repositories with application sources. With S2I builds, you can easily deliver the latest version of your application into production with shorter build times, decreased resource and network usage, improved security, and a number of other advantages. OpenShift supports multiple build strategies and input sources.

For more information, see the Source-to-Image (S2I) Build chapter of the OpenShift Container Platform documentation.

You must provide three elements to the S2I process to assemble the final container image:

  • The application sources hosted in an online SCM repository, such as GitHub.
  • The S2I Builder image, which serves as the foundation for the assembled image and provides the ecosystem in which your application is running.
  • Optionally, you can also provide environment variables and parameters that are used by S2I scripts.

The process injects your application source and dependencies into the Builder image according to instructions specified in the S2I script, and generates a Docker-formatted container image that runs the assembled application. For more information, check the S2I build requirements, build options and how builds work sections of the OpenShift Container Platform documentation.