Managing custom buildpacks in Cloud Foundry

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You can manage additional buildpacks in Cloud Foundry by using the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface tool (cf CLI).

If your app uses a language or framework that the Cloud Foundry (Cloud Foundry) system buildpacks do not support, you can take one of the following actions:

• Write your own buildpack. For more information, see Creating custom buildpacks.

• Customize an existing buildpack.

• Use a Cloud Foundry Community Buildpack.

• Use a Heroku Third-Party Buildpack.

Add a buildpack

You must be a Cloud Foundry admin user to run the commands discussed in this section.

To add a buildpack:

1. Run:

   cf create-buildpack BUILDPACK PATH POSITION [--lifecycle LIFECYCLE]
   

   Where:

   • BUILDPACK specifies the buildpack name.
   • PATH specifies the location of the buildpack. PATH can point to a ZIP file, the URL of a ZIP file, or a local directory.
   • POSITION specifies where to place the buildpack in the detection priority list.
   • --lifecycle LIFECYCLE (optional) specifies the lifecycle type for the buildpack. Valid values are buildpack (the default, for traditional Cloud Foundry buildpacks) and cnb (for Cloud Native Buildpacks). For more information about Cloud Native Buildpacks, see the Cloud Native Buildpacks documentation.

   For more information, enter cf help create-buildpack.

2. To confirm that you have successfully added a buildpack, run:

   cf buildpacks [--lifecycle LIFECYCLE]
   

   Use --lifecycle cnb to list only Cloud Native Buildpacks, or --lifecycle buildpack to list only traditional buildpacks.

Update a buildpack

To update a buildpack, run:

cf update-buildpack BUILDPACK [-p PATH] [-i POSITION] [-s STACK][--enable|--disable] [--lock|--unlock] [--rename NEW_NAME] [--lifecycle LIFECYCLE]

Where:

• BUILDPACK is the buildpack name.
• PATH is the location of the buildpack.
• POSITION is where the buildpack is in the detection priority list.
• STACK is the stack that the buildpack uses.
• --lifecycle LIFECYCLE (optional) specifies the lifecycle type of the buildpack to update. Valid values are buildpack and cnb. Use this flag when a traditional buildpack and a Cloud Native Buildpack share the same name to disambiguate which one to update.

For more information about updating buildpacks, enter cf help update-buildpack.

Rename a buildpack

To rename a buildpack, run:

cf rename-buildpack BUILDPACK NEW_NAME

Where BUILDPACK is the current buildpack name and NEW_NAME is the new name.

Delete a buildpack

To delete a buildpack, run:

cf delete-buildpack BUILDPACK [-s STACK] [-f] [--lifecycle LIFECYCLE]

Where:

• BUILDPACK is the buildpack name.
• STACK is the stack that the buildpack uses.
• --lifecycle LIFECYCLE (optional) specifies the lifecycle type of the buildpack to delete. Valid values are buildpack and cnb. Use this flag when a traditional buildpack and a Cloud Native Buildpack share the same name to disambiguate which one to delete.

For more information about deleting buildpacks, enter cf help delete-buildpack.

Lock and unlock a buildpack

Every new version of Cloud Foundry ships with an updated buildpack. By default, your deployment applies to the most recent buildpack when you upgrade. In some cases, however, you might want to preserve an existing buildpack, rather than upgrade to the latest version. For example, if an app you deploy depends on a specific component in Buildpack A that is not available in Buildpack B, you might want to continue using Buildpack A.

The --lock flag lets you continue to use your existing buildpack even after you upgrade. Locked buildpacks are not updated when Cloud Foundry updates. You must manually unlock them to update them.

If you elect to use the --unlock flag, your deployment applies to the most recent buildpack when you upgrade Cloud Foundry.

cf update-buildpack BUILDPACK [-p PATH] [-i POSITION] [-s STACK] [--enable|--disable] [--lock|--unlock]

This feature is also available through the API. See the locked flag under Update a Buildpack in the Cloud Foundry API documentation.

Deactivate custom buildpacks

You can disable custom buildpacks for an entire deployment by adding disable_custom_buildpacks: true in your Cloud Foundry manifest under properties.cc.