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Fixing the links Updating with Seb's comments Adding weight Fixing the engine aliases Updating after Arun pushed Removing empty file Signed-off-by: Mary Anthony <mary@docker.com>
135 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
135 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
<!--[metadata]>
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+++
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title = "Plugins API"
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description = "How to write Docker plugins extensions "
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keywords = ["API, Usage, plugins, documentation, developer"]
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[menu.main]
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parent = "engine_extend"
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weight=1
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+++
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<![end-metadata]-->
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# Docker Plugin API
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Docker plugins are out-of-process extensions which add capabilities to the
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Docker Engine.
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This page is intended for people who want to develop their own Docker plugin.
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If you just want to learn about or use Docker plugins, look
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[here](plugins.md).
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## What plugins are
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A plugin is a process running on the same docker host as the docker daemon,
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which registers itself by placing a file in one of the plugin directories described in [Plugin discovery](#plugin-discovery).
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Plugins have human-readable names, which are short, lowercase strings. For
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example, `flocker` or `weave`.
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Plugins can run inside or outside containers. Currently running them outside
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containers is recommended.
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## Plugin discovery
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Docker discovers plugins by looking for them in the plugin directory whenever a
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user or container tries to use one by name.
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There are three types of files which can be put in the plugin directory.
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* `.sock` files are UNIX domain sockets.
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* `.spec` files are text files containing a URL, such as `unix:///other.sock`.
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* `.json` files are text files containing a full json specification for the plugin.
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UNIX domain socket files must be located under `/run/docker/plugins`, whereas
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spec files can be located either under `/etc/docker/plugins` or `/usr/lib/docker/plugins`.
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The name of the file (excluding the extension) determines the plugin name.
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For example, the `flocker` plugin might create a UNIX socket at
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`/run/docker/plugins/flocker.sock`.
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You can define each plugin into a separated subdirectory if you want to isolate definitions from each other.
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For example, you can create the `flocker` socket under `/run/docker/plugins/flocker/flocker.sock` and only
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mount `/run/docker/plugins/flocker` inside the `flocker` container.
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Docker always searches for unix sockets in `/run/docker/plugins` first. It checks for spec or json files under
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`/etc/docker/plugins` and `/usr/lib/docker/plugins` if the socket doesn't exist. The directory scan stops as
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soon as it finds the first plugin definition with the given name.
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### JSON specification
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This is the JSON format for a plugin:
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```json
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{
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"Name": "plugin-example",
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"Addr": "https://example.com/docker/plugin",
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"TLSConfig": {
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"InsecureSkipVerify": false,
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"CAFile": "/usr/shared/docker/certs/example-ca.pem",
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"CertFile": "/usr/shared/docker/certs/example-cert.pem",
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"KeyFile": "/usr/shared/docker/certs/example-key.pem",
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}
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}
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```
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The `TLSConfig` field is optional and TLS will only be verified if this configuration is present.
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## Plugin lifecycle
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Plugins should be started before Docker, and stopped after Docker. For
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example, when packaging a plugin for a platform which supports `systemd`, you
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might use [`systemd` dependencies](
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http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html#Before=) to
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manage startup and shutdown order.
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When upgrading a plugin, you should first stop the Docker daemon, upgrade the
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plugin, then start Docker again.
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## Plugin activation
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When a plugin is first referred to -- either by a user referring to it by name
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(e.g. `docker run --volume-driver=foo`) or a container already configured to
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use a plugin being started -- Docker looks for the named plugin in the plugin
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directory and activates it with a handshake. See Handshake API below.
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Plugins are *not* activated automatically at Docker daemon startup. Rather,
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they are activated only lazily, or on-demand, when they are needed.
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## API design
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The Plugin API is RPC-style JSON over HTTP, much like webhooks.
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Requests flow *from* the Docker daemon *to* the plugin. So the plugin needs to
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implement an HTTP server and bind this to the UNIX socket mentioned in the
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"plugin discovery" section.
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All requests are HTTP `POST` requests.
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The API is versioned via an Accept header, which currently is always set to
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`application/vnd.docker.plugins.v1+json`.
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## Handshake API
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Plugins are activated via the following "handshake" API call.
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### /Plugin.Activate
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**Request:** empty body
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**Response:**
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```
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{
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"Implements": ["VolumeDriver"]
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}
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```
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Responds with a list of Docker subsystems which this plugin implements.
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After activation, the plugin will then be sent events from this subsystem.
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## Plugin retries
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Attempts to call a method on a plugin are retried with an exponential backoff
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for up to 30 seconds. This may help when packaging plugins as containers, since
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it gives plugin containers a chance to start up before failing any user
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containers which depend on them.
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