Pancake

Flatten $VCAP_SERVICES into simple, regular environment variables.

Instead of $VCAP_SERVICES with a PostgreSQL binding:

{
  "elephantsql":[{
  "label": "elephantsql",
  "plan": "turtle",
  "name": "myapp-db",
  "tags": ["postgresql"],
  "instance_name": "myapp-db",
  "credentials": {
    "uri": "postgres://user:password@raja.db.elephantsql.com:5432/dbname",
    "max_conns": "5"
  }
}]}

You will get environment variables based on the service name/label elephantsql:

export ELEPHANTSQL_URI=postgres://user:password@raja.db.elephantsql.com:5432/dbname
export ELEPHANTSQL_MAX_CONNS=5

And you'll get env vars based on the service instance named you choose myapp-db:

export MYAPP_DB_URI=postgres://user:password@raja.db.elephantsql.com:5432/dbname
export MYAPP_DB_MAX_CONNS=5

And you'll get env vars based on each tag within the service instance:

export POSTGRESQL_URI=postgres://user:password@raja.db.elephantsql.com:5432/dbname
export POSTGRESQL_MAX_CONNS=5

Install

You don't typically install or use cf-pancake CLI directly.

Buildpack Usage

Commonly you will use the pancake-buildpack Cloud Foundry buildpack.

If your platform operator has installed the buildpack as a system buildpack:

applications:
- name: myapp
  services:
  - myapp-db
  buildpacks:
  - pancake_buildpack
  - php_buildpack

If you do not see pancake_buildpack within your cf buildpacks list, then you have two options:

Y can use the buildpack with its Git URL:

applications:
- name: myapp
  services:
  - myapp-db
  buildpacks:
  - https://github.com/starkandwayne/pancake-buildpack
  - php_buildpack

Or you can use a pre-built buildpack release, for example:

applications:
- name: myapp
  services:
  - myapp-db
  buildpacks:
  - https://github.com/starkandwayne/pancake-buildpack/releases/download/v1.0.0/pancake_buildpack-cached-cflinuxfs3-v1.0.0.zip
  - php_buildpack

Cloud Native Buildpack

If you are dabbling with Cloud Native Builpacks then check out pancake-cnb.

Legacy Cloud Foundry

If your Cloud Foundry is old and does not support multi-buildpacks, or does not allow "supply buildpacks" (you get errors with the buildpack complaining about a missing bin/compile file), then you have one more option.

Download the latest cf-pancake release for linux-amd64 and store within your application source code prior to cf push:

mkdir -p vendor
curl -o vendor/cf-pancake -L $(curl -sSL https://api.github.com/repos/starkandwayne/cf-pancake/releases/latest | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name == "cf-pancake-linux-amd64") | .browser_download_url')

And create a .profile script to use cf-pancake:

#!/bin/bash

chmod +x vendor/cf-pancake
eval "$(./vendor/cf-pancake exports)"

Usage

Once you have installed cf-pancake using one of the methods above, your application and your cf ssh shell should now see the generated environment variables.

When using cf ssh, remember to run /tmp/lifecycle/shell in order to load your application's runtime environment (which includes cf-pancake behaviour):

# cf ssh phpapp
$ /tmp/lifecycle/shell
$ env

If you used the .profile (non-buildpack) approach above, then you need to source the .profile explicitly during cf ssh:

# cf ssh phpapp
$ /tmp/lifecycle/shell
$ source .profile
$ env

Local development

As cf-pancake exports is designed to be run within an application container, if you try to run it locally then $VCAP_SERVICES will be missing.

There are some fixtures/ JSON you can use:

(VCAP_APPLICATION={} VCAP_SERVICES=$(cat fixtures/elephantsql.json) go run main.go exports)
(VCAP_APPLICATION={} VCAP_SERVICES=$(cat fixtures/cleardb.json) go run main.go exports)
(VCAP_APPLICATION={} VCAP_SERVICES=$(cat fixtures/p-mysql.json) go run main.go exports)
(VCAP_APPLICATION={} VCAP_SERVICES=$(cat fixtures/two-services.json) go run main.go exports)
(VCAP_APPLICATION={} VCAP_SERVICES=$(cat fixtures/empty.json) go run main.go exports)

To check for errors, eval the results:

./test/test_eval.sh

You can also setup a local $VCAP_SERVICES (and $VCAP_APPLICATION is also required) for a Cloud Foundry application.

The jq CLI is required for the commands below (assuming your example app has a unique name):

export NAME=myapp-name

export VCAP_APPLICATION="{}"
export VCAP_SERVICES=$(cf curl $(cf curl "/v2/apps?q=name:$NAME" | jq ".resources[0].metadata.url" | xargs echo)/env | jq -c -M .system_env_json.VCAP_SERVICES)

Confirm they are setup:

env | grep VCAP

Now run the exports command:

go run main.go exports