TIL: How to change the Docker ENTRYPOINT with Packer

I've been working on automating setup and deployment for Tanzawa. This necessitates setting up a python 3 with all of the requisite dependencies and then starting a webserver.

Initially I tried to set the run_command, but that's executed when you build the image, not when you run the image. The command used when running the image is controlled by the ENTRYPOINT, which is Docker specific.

You can change your ENTRYPOINT by adding it to the "changes" section of your Docker configuration in your packer .pkr.hcl configuration file.

source "docker" "ubuntu" {
  image  = "python:3"
  commit = true
  changes = [
    "ENTRYPOINT [\"uwsgi --emperor /etc/uwsgi/vassals --uid www-data --gid www-data\"]"
  ]
}