Earthly
Dev tools
build automation
SHOW HN2021
223points
82comments
#187of 2,533 in 2021
Top 8%of 2021 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
22 positive, 34 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 9 critical, out of 67 comments about the project. Thread score +0.18.
Idea: 16 for, 3 againstExecution: 4 for, 2 againstDocs: 1 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Makes CI run the same everywhere and simplifies local builds
From 3 comments
Earthly is great! Finally makes it so CI runs the same everywhere. I try to use it wherever I can
thdxr on HNI love the idea. Yesterday I gave up building something locally and just got CI to do it because to run locally you have to kind of make a poor mans .travis.yml file out of bash…
quickthrower2 on HNAfter a day of trying it out, I have to say... this is really terrific. I was fully prepared to be disappointed, but I was pleasantly surprised by it at every turn. I hope I can…
picardo on HN
Useful for integration tests and multi-stage container builds
From 2 comments
This seems like it could be better than Docker when you need to manage dependent images. Like if I want to build a simple base image for my backend that is then used to build…
escot on HNThis is AWESOME! I already have a super container heavy workflow and abuse dockerfiles to do things like this. It's great to be able to generate artifacts in a container and…
kortex on HN
Objections
Mostly redundant with plain Dockerfiles and existing build systems
From 2 comments
I don't get it: why wouldn't I just use a Dockerfile? The Earthfiles look the same. Dockerfiles run the same way every time and Docker supports caching. I just see more…
emptysongglass on HNI looked at their main page and got the impression this tool is not very / not at all useful - except perhaps for some niche I'm not in. > Earthly is a syntax for defining your…
einpoklum on HN
Performance and correctness doubts versus Bazel at scale
From 2 comments
The comparison to Bazel here is really not appropriate. The core competency of Bazel is to know exactly the build graph and be able to do the minimum amount of work possible. I…
pcj-github on HNThe best summary from them looks to be: > Overall, compared to Bazel, Earthly sacrifices some correctness and reproducibility in favor of significantly better usability and…
thundergolfer on HN
Licence change to BSL contradicts free and open source claims
From 2 comments
Maybe don't call Earthly "free and open source" when it clearly is neither -- it is licensed under the Business Source License.
icy on HNI wonder what the scope of what would be a competitive service now that Earthly's license changed to BSL from MPL on 2021-02-01 [0]? Seems like Earthly Technologies Inc will…
no_circuit on HN
Landing page marketing is vague about what it does
From 2 comments
I looked at their main page and got the impression this tool is not very / not at all useful - except perhaps for some niche I'm not in. > Earthly is a syntax for defining your…
einpoklum on HNAh, now this is a value proposition! If they would only say _that_ on their front page, I would understand what they're offering me. Well, that, and a list of extra features they…
einpoklum on HN
Requests
Support for Podman
From 1 comment
Earthly has been great to use. My one issue is with docker. I would greatly prefer to use podman but it seems there is no support for it yet. Every issue I have had with earthly…
stonewareslord on HN
Distributed builds across multiple machines
From 2 comments
Ah, I see. That's pretty cool. But all builds are run on the same machine, which is not a deal breaker; it'd be nice to distribute them on multiple machines, as well.
picardo on HNThanks for checking it out. This is something we have plans for.
agbell on HN
CI integrations such as TeamCity, GitHub Actions and CodeBuild
From 3 comments
This looks very interesting. I couldn't see TeamCity mentioned in the CI integration section. Any plan to support it?
AlessandroA on HNDoes this work with GitHub Actions?
geekdave on HNI've been wishing for something like this. Can I generate AWS CodeBuild buildspec.yml files from an Earthfile?
picardo on HN
Questions
How does it compare to Bazel
From 2 comments
Can anyone who's familiar with Earthly explain why somebody would want to use it instead of Bazel?
wikibob on HN> > It works with your existing build system. > If I have a build system, or a build system generator, why do I need to redefine my build another way? There are build systems…
yagizdegirmenci on HN
Why BSL licence and what is the business risk
From 1 comment
I would value hearing more about the business risk that going BSL was designed to address: https://github.com/earthly/earthly/blob/main/LICENSE the associated PR just says "doing…
mdaniel on HN
Does it work on Windows and macOS
From 2 comments
How tightly coupled is this to docker? My major gripe is that I legitimately need cross platform build and test (windows, Linux, and macos). I will pay hundreds to thousands of…
duped on HNI'm working on our CI/CD right now and this looks like it would made my life easier. Killer feature for me here would be if you could run the same Earthfile on a mac or a windows…
petethepig on HN
Alternatives named
Bazel
From 2 comments
Can anyone who's familiar with Earthly explain why somebody would want to use it instead of Bazel?
wikibob on HN> > It works with your existing build system. > If I have a build system, or a build system generator, why do I need to redefine my build another way? There are build systems…
yagizdegirmenci on HN
Nix
From 1 comment
How would you compare Earthly to creating Docker images using Nix[0]? I love Nix declarative nature with strong emphasis on reproducibility. [0]:…
n3t on HN
Skaffold and Garden
From 1 comment
I don't get it: why wouldn't I just use a Dockerfile? The Earthfiles look the same. Dockerfiles run the same way every time and Docker supports caching. I just see more…
emptysongglass on HN