A python script to pull images from a Docker repository without installing Docker and its daemon.

The script creates a cache directory (~/.crpy/) to store layers already downloaded.

It was based on a simpler version called sdenel/docker-pull-push, but has since received so many changes that it does not resemble the original code anymore.

Installation

You can install it from the official pip repository:

pip install crpy

If you want to live on the edge and have the latest development features, install it directly from the repo:

pip install git+https://github.com/bvanelli/crpy.git

Basic CLI usage

TODO: Fill in once the "final" version of the API is stable. For a preview of the options, here is the help command:

usage: crpy [-h] [-k] [-p PROXY]
            {pull,push,login,logout,auth,manifest,config,commands,layer,repositories,tags,delete} ...

Package that can do basic docker command like pull and push without installing the docker virtual machine

positional arguments:
  {pull,push,login,logout,auth,manifest,config,commands,layer,repositories,tags,delete}
    pull                Pulls a docker image from a remove repo.
    push                Pushes a docker image from a remove repo.
    login               Logs in on a remote repo
    logout              Logs out of a remote repo
    auth                Shows authenticated repositories
    manifest            Inspects a docker registry metadata.
    config              Inspects a docker registry metadata.
    commands            Inspects a docker registry build commands. These are the same as when you check individual
                        image layers on Docker hub.
    layer               Inspects a docker registry layer.
    repositories        List the repositories on the registry.
    tags                List the tags on a repository.
    delete              Deletes a tag in a remote repo.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -k, --insecure        Use insecure registry. Ignores the validation of the certificate (useful for development
                        registries).
  -p PROXY, --proxy PROXY
                        Proxy for all requests. If your proxy contains authentication, pass it on the request in the
                        usual format "http://user:[email protected]"

For reporting issues visit https://github.com/bvanelli/crpy

One of the original intended usages was to run it CI to cache dependencies docker image (i.e. for Gitlab). In this case, we can check if the image already exists on the remote repository:

$ crpy manifest alpine:1.2.3
Authenticated at index.docker.io/library/alpine:latest
{'errors': [{'code': 'MANIFEST_UNKNOWN', 'message': 'manifest unknown', 'detail': 'unknown tag=1.2.3'}]}

You are also able to download images and save them to disk:

$ crpy pull alpine:latest alpine.tar.gz
latest: Pulling from index.docker.io/library/alpine
Authenticated at index.docker.io/library/alpine:latest
Using cache for layer 9824c27679d3
9824c27679d3: Pull complete
Downloaded image from index.docker.io/library/alpine:latest

On can then push this image to another repository:

$ crpy push alpine.tar.gz bvanelli/test:latest
crpy push alpine.tar.gz bvanelli/test:latest
The push refers to repository
Authenticated at index.docker.io/bvanelli/test:latest
Authenticated at index.docker.io/bvanelli/test:latest
9824c27679d3: Pushed
Pushed latest: digest: sha256:3f372403810ab0506dda12549f1035804192ef02fb36040c036845f90bd6bfe2

Let's now list the tags available at this repository:

$ crpy tags bvanelli/test
Authenticated at index.docker.io/bvanelli/test:latest
1.0.0
latest

And delete one of the tags. I show this example because both tags were the same, and deleting one will delete them both, so use this command with caution:

$ crpy delete bvanelli/test:1.0.0
crpy delete bvanelli/test:1.0.0
Authenticated at index.docker.io/bvanelli/test:1.0.0
Authenticated at index.docker.io/bvanelli/test:1.0.0
b''
$ crpy tags bvanelli/test
Authenticated at index.docker.io/bvanelli/test:latest

Why creating this package?

Essentially, I wanted to learn how docker handles docker image pushing and pulling, and I ended up also implementing functions that docker-cli does not address like listing repositories, deleting tags, etc. If you want to understand what is going on under the hood, take a look at this great article that delves over how containers are built and pushed.

I understand that there are many other good solutions out there, I'll list them here:

• DXF (python): module with command line to interact with the registry. While some functionality is the same, DXF does not allow to pull and save entire images, only blobs. This means images will not run again once pulled from the registry.
• docker-ls (go): module with command line to manipulate docker registries, focusing on listing repositories and tags. Also allows removal of tags, but does not allow pushing and pulling.
• registry-cli (python): module with command line to manipulate docker registries. Allows removal of tags by regex, with configurable filters and number of images to keep. but does not allow pushing and pulling. Also, the codebase was written without type-hinting, which makes using it as an API a bit more difficult.

There are also production-ready solutions:

• skopeo (go): very wide range of supported registries and formats. It also implements interactions with the docker daemon, so that you can interact even with already pulled images. It can also inspect repositories, manifests and configs.
• crane (go): also very wide of support of registry interaction. Seems to also focus on the efficiency of doing operations.

I see nothing wrong with the available solutions, but if you are looking for a code based approach, you want to use python AND you want to use async code (like every other cool kid on the block), there are no real alternatives to interact with registries. Therefore, I started this little project to fill the gap.

If you know of any other alternative tools, feel free to open an issue or directly place a merge request editing this README.