This docker image aim is to run packer in a Docker container. There is an official hashicorp/packer Docker image but our goal was:

• smaller image size: hashicorp/packer is around 700 Mb
• build from of master: there are a couple of bug fixes we rely on, not yet released
• include additional plugins: especially the azure builder

The main idea is that you can use a lean Alpine linux, and put only the packer binaries into it.

Usage

You can use Docker volume to inject you packer JSON into the container:

$ docker run -it --rm \
  -v $(pwd):/data \
  -w /data \
  sequenceiq/packer:v0.7.5.dev \
    build packer.json

Alias

To make life easier you can create an alias which is an in-place replacement for a locally installed packer:

$ alias packer='docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/data -w /data sequenceiq/packer:v0.7.5.dev'

After that you can use it as easy as:

packer validate mypacker.json