Setting up Docker's Buildx

Docker Buildx is an extension of Docker's build command, that provides a more efficient way to create images. It is part of Docker 19.03 and can also be manually installed as a CLI plugin for older versions.

1. Enable Docker CLI experimental features
   Docker CLI experimental features are required to use Buildx. Enable them by setting the DOCKER_CLI_EXPERIMENTAL environment variable to enabled.
   You can do this by adding the following line to your shell profile file (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.):

export DOCKER_CLI_EXPERIMENTAL=enabled

After adding it, source your shell profile file or restart your shell to apply the changes.

2. Create a new builder instance
   By default, Docker uses the "legacy" builder. You need to create a new builder instance that uses BuildKit. To create a new builder instance, use the following command:

docker buildx create --use

The --use flag sets the newly created builder as the current one.

Setting up multiarch/qemu-user-static

1. Check Buildx is working
   Use the docker buildx inspect --bootstrap command to verify that Buildx is working correctly. The --bootstrap option ensures the builder instance is running before inspecting it. The output should look something like this:

Name:          my_builder
Driver:        docker-container
Last Activity: 2023-06-13 04:37:30 +0000 UTC
Nodes:
Name:      my_builder0
Endpoint:  unix:///var/run/docker.sock
Status:    running
Buildkit:  v0.11.6
Platforms: linux/amd64, linux/amd64/v2, linux/amd64/v3, linux/amd64/v4, linux/386

2. Install binfmt-support and qemu-user-static if not installed already.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker.io binfmt-support qemu-user-static
sudo systemctl restart docker

3. Setup QEMU to run binaries from multiple architectures

docker run --rm --privileged multiarch/qemu-user-static --reset -p yes

4. Confirm QEMU is working

Again run docker buildx inspect --bootstrap command to verify that linux/arm64 is in the list of platforms.

Name:          my_builder
Driver:        docker-container
Last Activity: 2023-06-13 04:37:30 +0000 UTC
Nodes:
Name:      my_builder0
Endpoint:  unix:///var/run/docker.sock
Status:    running
Buildkit:  v0.11.6
Platforms: linux/amd64, linux/amd64/v2, linux/amd64/v3, linux/amd64/v4, linux/386, linux/arm64, linux/riscv64, linux/ppc64, linux/ppc64le, linux/s390x, linux/mips64le, linux/mips64

Building/publishing images on Dockerhub

1. Ensure that your multiarch setup is working

2. Run script tools/build-release.sh --push docker to build amd64, arm64v8, latest and multiarch images and publish them on Dockerhub.

3. If you do not want to push the images directly on Dockerhub then run tools/build-release.sh docker. It will only create images locally but not push them to Dockerhub.