regsync

regsync is an image mirroring tool, copying images between two locations. See the Image References documentation for details on how to reference images in a registry or on the local filesystem with an OCI Layout.

regsync has various operating modes based on the CLI and flags:

• regsync server: Deploys a persistent server syncing images based on the requested schedule. An initial pass is performed to copy any missing tags before waiting for the next scheduled cycle to verify all image digests.
• regsync once: Synchronizes all images a single time and exits.
• regsync once --missing: Synchronizes only the missing tags from the target and exits. This is useful if you have immutable tags, or if you do not care about stale content.
• regsync check: Reports if any images need to be synchronized, but does not copy any content.

A minimal example that copies a few images from to your local registry looks like:

version: 1 # optional for v1 files, there is no v2 yet
creds:
  - registry: registry.example.org
    user: syncuser
    pass: 'Pa$$w0rd' # typically you would store secrets outside of this file
  - registry: docker.io
    user: youruser
    pass: "{{file \"/var/run/secrets/hub_token\"}}"
defaults:
  interval: 60m # all sync checks run hourly
sync:
  - source: busybox:latest
    target: registry.example.org/library/busybox:latest
    type: image
  - source: alpine
    target: registry.example.org/library/alpine
    type: repository
    tags:
      allow:
      - "latest"
      - "edge"
      - "3"
      - "3\\.\\d+"
      deny:
      - "3\\.0" # deny can be used to remove matches from the allow list
  - source: ghcr.io/regclient/regctl
    target: registry.example.org/regclient/regctl
    type: repository
    tags:
      allow:
      - "latest"
      - "edge"
      - "v[0-9\\.]+"
    referrers: true
    digestTags: true
    fastCopy: true

version: 1

This should be left at version 1 or not included at all. This may be incremented if future regsync releases change the configuration file structure.

regsync will attempt to import credentials from ${HOME}/.docker/config.json by default. When run from a container, the default path is /home/appuser/.docker/config.json. Use the creds to override the imported and default settings.

creds:
  - registry: registry.example.org
    user: youruser
    pass: 'Pa$$w0rd'
  - registry: localhost:5000
    tls: disabled

• creds (optional, array of objects): The creds objects have the following fields:

  • registry (required, string, templates supported): Hostname and port of the registry server used in image references. Use docker.io for Docker Hub.

  • hostname (optional, string): This field is rarely used and will override using the registry name for the hostname. This can be used when configuring the same registry with multiple settings, such as different logins. There is a reduced efficiency when copying content between different registry names that go to the same backend registry.

  • user (optional, string, templates supported): Username. This is required for using a password.

  • pass (optional, string, templates supported): Password. Consider using a credential helper or a template to securely store credentials outside of the config file. Credentials will be automatically imported from Docker when available.

  • credHelper (optional, string): Name of a credential helper, typically in the form docker-credential-name. The alpine based docker image for regsync includes docker-credential-ecr-login and docker-credential-gcr.

  • credExpire (optional, duration): Duration to use a credential from a credHelper. This defaults to 1 hour. Use the Go time.Duration syntax when setting, e.g. 1h15m or 30s.

  • tls (optional, enum): Whether TLS is enabled/verified. Values include “enabled” (default), “insecure”, or “disabled”.

  • regcert (optional, string, templates supported): Registry CA certificate for self signed certificates. This may be a string with \n for line breaks, or the yaml multi-line syntax may be used like:

    regcert: |
      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      MIIJDDCCBPSgAwIB....
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    

  • clientCert (optional, string, templates supported): Client certificate used for mTLS authentication. Both clientCert and clientKey need to be defined for mTLS. See regcert for details of how to include this in yaml.

  • clientKey (optional, string, templates supported): Client key used for mTLS authentication. Both clientCert and clientKey need to be defined for mTLS. See regcert for details of how to include this in yaml.

  • pathPrefix (optional, string): Path added before all images pulled from this registry. This is useful for some mirror configurations that place images under a specific path.

  • mirrors (optional, array of strings): Array of registry names to use as a mirror for this registry. Mirrors are sorted by priority, highest first. This registry is sorted after any listed mirrors with the same priority. Mirrors are not used for push commands that change the registry, only for pulling content.

  • priority (optional, integer): Non-negative integer priority used for sorting mirrors. This defaults to 0.

  • repoAuth (optional, bool): Configures authentication requests per repository instead of for the registry. This is required for some registry providers, specifically gcr.io. This defaults to false.

  • blobChunk (optional, int in bytes): Chunk size for pushing blobs. Each chunk is a separate http request, incurring network overhead. The entire chunk is stored in memory, so chunks should be small enough not to exhaust RAM.

  • blobMax (optional, int in bytes): Blob size which skips the single put request in favor of the chunked upload. Note that a failed blob put will fall back to a chunked upload in most cases. Disable with -1 to always try a single put regardless of blob size.

  • reqPerSec (optional, float): Requests per second to throttle API calls to the registry. This may be a decimal like 0.5 to limit to one request every 2 seconds. Disable by leaving undefined or setting to 0.

  • reqConcurrent (optional, int): Number of concurrent requests that can be made to the registry. Disable by leaving undefined or setting to 0.

Various global options and default settings for sync may be specified in defaults.

defaults:
  ratelimit:
    min: 20
    retry: 15m
  parallel: 3
  interval: 60m

• defaults (optional, object): Global settings and default values applied to each sync entry:

  • parallel (optional, int): Number of concurrent image copies to run. All sync steps may be started concurrently to check if a mirror is needed, but will wait on this limit when a copy is needed. Defaults to 1.

  • cacheCount (optional, int): Number of items to cache for various registry API requests, per item type. cacheTime must also be set for this to apply.

  • cacheTime (optional, duration): Duration for items to remain in the cache for various registry API requests. cacheCount must also be set for this to apply.

  • skipDockerConfig (optional, bool): Do not read the user credentials in ${HOME}/.docker/config.json. Defaults to true.

  • userAgent (optional, string): Override the user-agent for http requests. Defaults to the regsync user agent, including a version.

  • backup, interval, schedule, ratelimit, digestTags, referrers, referrerFilters, referrerSource, referrerTarget, fastCopy, forceRecursive, and mediaTypes: See description under sync.

Each entry in sync specifies a copy request with a source, target, any inclusions and exclusions, and a frequency. Each entry can be for a single image, a repository, or an entire registry, based on the type.

sync:
  - source: busybox:latest
    target: registry.example.org/library/busybox:latest
    type: image
    schedule: "15 01 * * *"
  - source: ghcr.io/regclient/regctl
    target: registry.example.org/regclient/regctl
    type: repository
    tags:
      allow:
      - "latest"
      - "edge"
      - "v[0-9\\.]+"
    referrers: true
    schedule: "30 01 * * *"

• sync (required, array of objects):

  • source (required, string, templates supported): Source registry, repository, or image.

  • target (required, string, templates supported): Target registry, repository, or image.

  • type (required, enum): “registry”, “repository”, or “image”. “registry” expects a registry name (host:port) and will copy multiple repositories (note, this requires the registry to support the _catalog API). “repository” will copy multiple images from the source repository.

  • interval (semi-required, duration): How often to run each sync step in server mode. Either interval or schedule is required, and schedule overrides interval if both are defined.

  • schedule (semi-required, string in cron syntax): Cron like schedule to run each step. E.g. schedule: "15 01 * * *" runs the sync at 1:15am. Either interval or schedule is required, and schedule overrides interval if both are defined.

  • backup (optional, string, templates supported): Tag or image reference for backing up target image before overwriting. This may include a Go template syntax. This backup is only run when the source changes and the target exists that is about to be overwritten. If the backup tag already exists, it will be overwritten.

  • digestTags (optional, bool): Copies digest specific tags in addition to the manifests. Defaults to false.

  • fastCopy (optional, bool): Skip referrers and digest tag checks when image exists, overrides forceRecursive.

  • forceRecursive (optional, bool): Forces a copy of all manifests and blobs even when the target parent manifest already exists.

  • mediaTypes (optional, array of strings): Media types to include. These must also be supported by regclient. Defaults to: ["application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.v2+json", "application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.list.v2+json", "application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json", "application/vnd.oci.image.index.v1+json"]

  • platform (optional, string): Single platform to pull from a multi-platform image, e.g. linux/amd64. By default all platforms are copied along with the original upstream manifest list. Note that looking up the platform from a multi-platform image counts against the Docker Hub rate limit, and that rate limits are not checked prior to resolving the platform. When run in “server” mode, multi-platform manifests are cached.

  • ratelimit (optional, object): Settings to throttle based on source rate limits.

    • min (optional, int): Minimum number of pulls remaining to start the step. Actions while running the step can result in going below this limit. Note that parallel steps and multi-platform images may each result in more than one pull happening beyond this threshold.

    • retry (optional, duration): How long to wait before checking if the rate limit has increased.

  • referrers (optional, bool): Copies referrers in addition to the selected manifests. Defaults to false.

  • referrerFilters (optional, array of objects): List of filters for referrers to include. Defaults to include all referrers.

    • artifactType (optional, string): Artifact types to include.

    • annotations (optional, map of string to string): Mapping of annotations for referrers.

  • referrerSource (optional, string, templates supported): Source repo for pulling referrers. Defaults to pulling referrers from the image source repository.

  • referrerTarget (optional, string, templates supported): Target repo for pushing referrers. Defaults to pushing referrers to the image target repository.

  • repos (optional, object): Implements filters on repositories for “registry” types. Regex values are automatically bound to the beginning and ending of each string (^ and $).

    • allow (optional, array of strings): Regex to allow specific repositories.

    • deny (optional, array of strings): Regex to deny specific repositories.

  • tags (optional, object): Implements filters on tags for “registry” and “repository” types Regex values are automatically bound to the beginning and ending of each string (^ and $).

    • allow (optional, array of strings): Regex to allow specific tags.

    • deny (optional, array of strings): Regex to deny specific tags.

Any field beginning with x- is considered a user extension and will not be parsed in current or future versions of the project. These are useful for integrating your own tooling, or setting values for yaml anchors and aliases.

For example, the following configures a few sync steps with the same set to tags to copy, and another set of steps with the same backup naming scheme.

x-backup: &backup "backup-{{.Ref.Tag}}"
x-std-repo: &std-repo
  type: repository
  tags:
    allow:
    - "latest"
    - "edge"
    - "v[0-9\\.]+"
sync:
  - <<: *std-repo
    source: upstream.example.com/repo-a
    target: registry.example.org/repo-a
  - <<: *std-repo
    source: upstream.example.com/repo-b
    target: registry.example.org/repo-b
    backup: *backup
  - source: upstream.example.com/repo-c:latest
    target: registry.example.org/repo-c:latest
    type: image
    backup: *backup

Go templates are used to expand values in registry, user, pass, regcert, clientCert, clientKey, source, target, referrerSource, referrerTarget, and backup.

For registry, user, pass, regcert, clientCert, and clientKey, no values are provided under the . field.

The source, target, referrerSource, referrerTarget, backup templates support the following objects:

• .Sync: Values from the current sync step, including
  • .Sync.Source: Source
  • .Sync.Target: Target
  • .Sync.Type: Type
  • .Sync.Backup: Backup
  • .Sync.Interval: Interval
  • .Sync.Schedule: Schedule

The backup template supports the following objects:

• .Ref: Reference object about to be overwritten
  • .Ref.Reference: Full reference
  • .Ref.Registry: Registry name
  • .Ref.Repository: Repository
  • .Ref.Tag: Tag
• .Sync: Values from the current sync step listed above

Note that templates are expanded in the order source, referrerSource, target, referrerTarget, and then backup. Using a value before it has been expanded will return the template string.

See Template Functions for more details on the custom functions available in templates.

By default, regsync outputs informational messages or greater from the logging interface. Additional logging levels are available with the -v option. Logs are structured (including key=value in addition to a message) and the output can be switched from text based to JSON with --logopt json. Log output is always sent to stderr.

regsync check -c regsync-debug.yml -v trace --logopt json