website/www: feature preview boxes 2.0
This commit is contained in:
Mitchell Hashimoto
parent
653a492f31
commit
f7629bb029
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,241 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
page_title: "Vagrant 1.5 Feature Preview: Boxes 2.0"
|
||||
title: "Feature Preview: Boxes 2.0"
|
||||
author: Mitchell Hashimoto
|
||||
author_url: https://github.com/mitchellh
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Vagrant 1.5 will feature a revamped system for finding, downloading,
|
||||
and using boxes. With Vagrant 1.5 boxes will be easier than ever to
|
||||
find, build, use, update, and share. For new users, Vagrant becomes
|
||||
much easier to use, and for existing users, the box system becomes much
|
||||
more powerful with new features to help teams using Vagrant.
|
||||
|
||||
Here are some quick highlights of the new box system: box names are
|
||||
now as simple as `hashicorp/precise64`, which acts as both the address
|
||||
for the box as well as the name. A single box address can represent a
|
||||
box for multiple providers, so you no longer need to special-case
|
||||
box URLs depending on the provider in use. Boxes are now versionable,
|
||||
so you can deploy box updates and users of that box are notified when
|
||||
updates are available. And finally, we're launching a public service to
|
||||
share, discover, and build boxes.
|
||||
|
||||
And, we're also happy to say that the new system is fully backwards
|
||||
compatible. All old CLI commands, box files, and Vagrantfiles continue to
|
||||
behave exactly the way they have before.
|
||||
|
||||
Read on to learn more about how all these new features work as well
|
||||
as to learn some of the motivation behind the features.
|
||||
|
||||
READMORE
|
||||
|
||||
### Motivation
|
||||
|
||||
The box system that is in place in Vagrant 1.4 and earlier has been
|
||||
mostly untouched since the first release of Vagrant. While the format
|
||||
of boxes and commands were modified slightly for Vagrant 1.1 to accomodate
|
||||
multiple providers, the general use has not changed at all in over four years.
|
||||
|
||||
During this time, we've learned a lot about how people use Vagrant and
|
||||
the box system:
|
||||
|
||||
* Users want an easier way to find boxes, both for specific operating systems
|
||||
as well as complete development environments.
|
||||
|
||||
* Beginners are often confused about the existing separation of the
|
||||
logical name of the box from its URL. For example, what is the `<name>` in
|
||||
`vagrant box add <name> <url>` used for?
|
||||
|
||||
* With the introduction of multiple providers, boxes (specifically URLs to
|
||||
boxes) becoming specific to a provider caused confusion and some level
|
||||
of frustration.
|
||||
|
||||
* Box creators and organizations using Vagrant want a way to update boxes
|
||||
and notify Vagrant users of these updates. The idea of only using a
|
||||
configuration management system to keep boxes up to date doesn't always
|
||||
align with what the user of Vagrant really wants.
|
||||
|
||||
* Box creators want a way to share the box they've made. Additionally, box
|
||||
hosting has always been a bit of a challenge.
|
||||
|
||||
We believe we've successfully addressed all of this feedback for Vagrant
|
||||
1.5, building a powerful new box system while retaining complete backwards
|
||||
compatibility.
|
||||
|
||||
### Box Discovery and Sharing
|
||||
|
||||
For years, the only way to find other boxes has been through word of
|
||||
mouth or community-powered listings of boxes. We've been grateful to
|
||||
those in the community who have helped Vagrant users discovery boxes,
|
||||
but we felt it was time to make discovery and sharing more official.
|
||||
|
||||
Coinciding with the release of Vagrant 1.5, we'll be launching a
|
||||
website to find and share boxes. This website supports all of the
|
||||
upcoming features of boxes such as shortnames, versions, multiple
|
||||
providers, changelogs, and more.
|
||||
|
||||
Users will able to sign up and share their own boxes. Boxes don't have
|
||||
to be physically hosted on the service. If you prefer to keep the physical
|
||||
box file on your own network, we're happy to simply host the metadata.
|
||||
Of course, we'll also allow you to upload the box files directly to us.
|
||||
|
||||
And for those with private boxes, you can create private boxes that are
|
||||
only available to people or organizations you designate. More details about
|
||||
all the features of this website will emerge in the coming weeks.
|
||||
|
||||
The availability of this resource will make it trivially easy for beginners
|
||||
to find a box with the technology they're looking for. Much like the existence
|
||||
of a library helps speed up development, the existence of pre-made environments
|
||||
for various technologies should speed up getting started with Vagrant.
|
||||
|
||||
And for existing users of Vagrant, it is now easier than ever to share and
|
||||
update your environments.
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="alert alert-block alert-info">
|
||||
<strong>Interested in early access?</strong> We're looking for some
|
||||
people interested in early access to begin populating the site prior
|
||||
to launch. If you have boxes you'd like to share, please contact
|
||||
hello@hashicorp.com for more details..
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
### Box Shortnames
|
||||
|
||||
Adding a box prior to Vagrant 1.5 required two pieces of information:
|
||||
a logical name and a URL to the box itself. The logical name would then
|
||||
be used as a parameter to `config.vm.box` in your Vagrantfile to map it
|
||||
to the proper box.
|
||||
|
||||
This caused some friction for new users because the reason for having
|
||||
a logical name in addition to the URL wasn't immediately clear. And for teams
|
||||
heavily using Vagrant, it was sometimes complicated to maintain a unique
|
||||
name across the entire team, especially since users were able to assign
|
||||
arbitrary names to downloaded boxes.
|
||||
|
||||
With Vagrant 1.5, there is now only one thing you need to know to use
|
||||
a box: the box name. For example, the precise64 box that we provide is
|
||||
now named `hashicorp/precise64`. Using this name is easier than ever:
|
||||
|
||||
<pre class="prettyprint">
|
||||
$ vagrant box add hashicorp/precise64
|
||||
...
|
||||
</pre>
|
||||
|
||||
And in your Vagrantfile:
|
||||
|
||||
<pre class="prettyprint">
|
||||
config.vm.box = "hashicorp/precise64"
|
||||
</pre>
|
||||
|
||||
This one name can represent a box that supports multiple providers.
|
||||
You no longer need to maintain a list of differing URLs for each
|
||||
provider you want to use. Below shows what it is like to add a box
|
||||
that supports multiple providers:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
$ vagrant box add hashicorp/precise64
|
||||
This box can work with multiple providers! The providers that it
|
||||
can work with are listed below. Please review the list and choose
|
||||
the provider you will be working with.
|
||||
|
||||
1.) virtualbox
|
||||
2.) vmware
|
||||
|
||||
Enter your choice: _
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
The name is looked up in the directory of Vagrant boxes, the same
|
||||
website we're launching for discovery and sharing. This results in a
|
||||
nice, simple one-to-one mapping between the name in the directory
|
||||
and the name actually used with Vagrant. Also, while by default it
|
||||
points to our publicly hosted directory, you're able to customize
|
||||
this lookup location, as well.
|
||||
|
||||
Of course, you're still able to host boxes at a specific URL and the
|
||||
server-side component is _completely_ optional. And, as mentioned
|
||||
previously, old boxes and the old usage of the CLI is still fully
|
||||
supported and works the exact same way.
|
||||
|
||||
### Box Versions
|
||||
|
||||
Perhaps one of the most requested features of the past year or more
|
||||
has been the ability to _update boxes_ in some way.
|
||||
|
||||
Whether you use bare boxes like precise64 or you use a box with everything
|
||||
pre-installed on it, there comes a time when the box must be updated to
|
||||
fix issues or add features. Prior to Vagrant 1.5, you had to manually
|
||||
notify any users of a box that there has been an update, and these users
|
||||
had no way of knowing what has changed or how many updates there have been
|
||||
since they last downloaded the box. And once they updated, they had no
|
||||
way of going to a past version unless they saved the box file.
|
||||
|
||||
Vagrant 1.5 fixes all of these problems. Boxes now have a version number,
|
||||
Vagrantfiles can constrain the box version they use, and Vagrant can
|
||||
automatically check for updates.
|
||||
|
||||
#### Constraints
|
||||
|
||||
By default, when adding a box (whether using `vagrant box add` or
|
||||
as part of a `vagrant up`) Vagrant will always download and use the
|
||||
latest version of a box. However, you can specify a version constraint
|
||||
if you want to use another version or you wish to protect against a future
|
||||
version breaking your development environment.
|
||||
|
||||
Box version constraints are simple and yet can be chained together
|
||||
to form arbitrarily complex constraints. For example, to lock to a specific
|
||||
version, the constraint might be `= 1.2.3`. Or, perhaps you want to make
|
||||
sure the major version doesn't change, in which case the constraint can
|
||||
be `>= 1.2.3, < 2.0.0`.
|
||||
|
||||
A box constraint can be specified when adding a box using the `--box-version`
|
||||
flag, and can also be specified in the Vagrantfile using `config.vm.box_version`.
|
||||
|
||||
Vagrant itself can store multiple versions of a box on disk, so different
|
||||
Vagrant environments can use different versions of a box at the same time
|
||||
without issue.
|
||||
|
||||
#### Updating
|
||||
|
||||
Before updating, you need to know whether the box you're using is outdated
|
||||
or not. There are two methods of determining if a box is outdated.
|
||||
|
||||
The first way is to call `vagrant box outdated`. This will check your current
|
||||
Vagrant environment if it is using an outdated box. While we provide this
|
||||
command, we don't actually expect it to be used very often compared to the
|
||||
other method.
|
||||
|
||||
Instead, the other way to check for a box being outdated is simply to
|
||||
run `vagrant up`. Any `vagrant up`, whether it is creating a new environment
|
||||
or resuming an existing one, will check if the box it is using is out of date.
|
||||
If it is, it will notify the user.
|
||||
|
||||
Vagrant itself won't automatically download the new box or update an
|
||||
existing environment to use the new box. An existing environment might have
|
||||
important state so it isn't safe for Vagrant to automatically upgrade it,
|
||||
and downloading a new box could take several minutes and we won't want to
|
||||
disrupt your workflow that much if you don't actually want it to download.
|
||||
|
||||
Instead, once you've determind your box is outdated, you can update it
|
||||
by calling `vagrant box update`. This will download the new box. To use
|
||||
the new box, you'll have to destroy and recreate your Vagrant environment.
|
||||
When calling `vagrant up` on an uncreated Vagrant environment, Vagrant will
|
||||
always automatically use the box with the latest version that satisfies
|
||||
the constraints in the Vagrantfile.
|
||||
|
||||
But how does Vagrant know if a box has updates or where to download
|
||||
these boxes? This detail is a bit out of scope for this feature preview,
|
||||
but is covered
|
||||
[in-depth in the upcoming documentation](https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/blob/master/website/docs/source/v2/boxes/versioning.html.md).
|
||||
|
||||
### What's Next?
|
||||
|
||||
The revamp to the box system is a huge feature that includes changes
|
||||
to many different components of Vagrant. We're proud to be able to ship
|
||||
such a large change while maintaining complete backwards compatibility.
|
||||
To learn about all the details all the new box system, please
|
||||
[browse the upcoming documentation for it](https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/blob/master/website/docs/source/v2/boxes/versioning.html.md)
|
||||
which is already complete.
|
||||
|
||||
And that concludes the second Vagrant 1.5 feature preview blog post.
|
||||
We have more on the way and I must say that this isn't even the
|
||||
biggest feature coming to Vagrant 1.5! There are many more surprises
|
||||
on the way, so keep an eye out for future blog posts.
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue