faas-cli

This is a CLI for use with OpenFaaS - a serverless functions framework for Docker & Kubernetes.

Before using this tool please setup OpenFaaS by following instructions over on the main repo.

The CLI can be used to build and deploy functions to OpenFaaS. You can build OpenFaaS functions from a set of supported language templates (such as Node.js, Python, CSharp and Ruby). That means you just write a handler file such as (handler.py/handler.js) and the CLI does the rest to create a Docker image.

Demo: ASCII cinema

Intall the CLI

The easiest way to install the faas-cli is through a curl script or brew:

$ curl -sSL https://cli.openfaas.com | sudo sh

or

$ brew install faas-cli

The contributing guide has instructions for building from source

Run the CLI

The main actions for the tool are:

• -action build - builds Docker images from the supported language types
• -action push - pushes Docker images into a registry
• -action deploy - deploys the functions into a local or remote OpenFaaS gateway

You can chose between using a programming language template where you only need to provide a handler file, or a Docker that you can build yourself.

Templates

Specify lang: node/python/csharp/ruby

• Supports common languages

• Quick and easy - just write one file

• Specify depenencies on Gemfile / requirements.txt or package.json etc

• Customise the provided templates

Perhaps you need to have gcc or another dependency in your Python template? That's not a problem.

You can customise the Dockerfile or code for any of the templates. Just create a new directory and copy in the templates folder from this repository. The templates in your current working directory are always used for builds.

Docker image

Specify lang: Dockerfile if you want the faas-cli to execute a build or skip_build: true for pre-supplied images.

• Ultimate versatility and control
• Package anything
• If you are using a stack file add the skip_build: true attribute
• Use one of the samples as a basis

YAML files for ease of use

You can define individual functions or a set of of them within a YAML file. This makes the CLI easier to use and means you can use this file to deploy to your OpenFaaS instance.

Here is an example file using the samples.yml file included in the repository.

provider:
  name: faas
  gateway: http://localhost:8080

functions:
  url-ping:
    lang: python
    handler: ./sample/url-ping
    image: alexellis2/faas-urlping

This url-ping function is defined in the sample/url-ping folder makes use of Python. All we had to do was to write a handler.py file and then to list off any Python modules in requirements.txt.

• Build the files in the .yml file:

$ faas-cli -action build -f ./samples.yml

-f specifies the file or URL to download your YAML file from. The long version of the -f flag is: -yaml.

You can also download over HTTP/s:

$ faas-cli -action build -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexellis/faas-cli/master/samples.yml

Docker along with a Python template will be used to build an image named alexellis2/faas-urlping.

• Deploy your function

Now you can use the following command to deploy your function(s):

$ faas-cli -action deploy -f ./samples.yml

• Possible entries for functions are documented below:

functions:
  deployed_function_name:
    lang: node or python (optional)
    handler: ./path/to/handler (optional)
    image: docker-image-name
    environment:
      env1: value1
      env2: "value2"

Use environmental variables for setting tokens and configuration.

Accessing the function with curl

You can initiate a HTTP POST via curl:

• with the -d flag i.e. -d "my data here"
• or with --data-binary @filename.txt to send a whole file including newlines
• if you want to pass input from STDIN then use --data-binary @-

$ curl -d '{"hello": "world"}' http://localhost:8080/function/nodejs-echo
{ nodeVersion: 'v6.9.1', input: '{"hello": "world"}' }

$ curl --data-binary @README.md http://localhost:8080/function/nodejs-echo

$ uname -a | curl http://localhost:8080/function/nodejs-echo--data-binary @-

For further instructions on the manual CLI flags (without using a YAML file) read manual_cli.md

FaaS-CLI Developers / Contributors

See contributing guide.

License

This project is part of the OpenFaaS project licensed under the MIT License.