Bollard

A Pythonic, zero-dependency client for the Docker and Podman Engine APIs. Prioritizes descriptive naming, context managers, and cross-platform ease of use.

Installation

pip install bollard

Project Structure

For a detailed overview of the project's architecture, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

Key Features

• Pythonic API: list_containers instead of ps; remove_image instead of rmi.
• Zero Dependencies: Uses only the Python standard library (http.client, socket, json).
• Smart Connection: Auto-detects Docker/Podman sockets (Unix, Windows Pipes, DOCKER_HOST).
• Windows Friendly: Auto-starts the Podman machine on Windows if connection fails.
• Resource Safety: Context managers for client connections and ephemeral containers.
• Streaming Output: Real-time progress updates for long-running operations like pull and build.
• .dockerignore Support: Respects .dockerignore files when building images.
• Full Lifecycle: Manage Containers, Images, Networks, and Volumes.

Usage

Basic Connection

from bollard import DockerClient

with DockerClient() as client:
    for image in client.list_images():
        print(f"Image: {image.tags[0]}")

Managing Containers

with DockerClient() as client:
    # Run a container and get logs
    container = client.run_container("alpine:latest", command="echo 'Hello World'")
    print(container.logs())

    # Stop and remove
    container.stop()
    container.remove(force=True)

Ephemeral Containers (Auto-Cleanup)

Use with client.container(...) to automatically remove the container after the block exits, even if errors occur.

with DockerClient().container("alpine") as container:
    container.exec(["echo", "Running inside container"])
# Container is automatically removed

Streaming Image Operations

Methods pull_image, build_image, and push_image, when called with progress=True, return a generator that yields progress updates.

with DockerClient() as client:
    # Pull an image with progress
    for progress in client.pull_image("alpine:latest", progress=True):
        if "status" in progress:
            print(f"{progress['status']} {progress.get('progress', '')}")

    # Build from directory
    for log in client.build_image(".", "my-app:latest", progress=True):
        if "stream" in log:
            print(log["stream"], end="")

Managing Networks & Volumes

Create and manage Docker networks and volumes using Resource objects.

with DockerClient() as client:
    # Networks
    net = client.create_network("my-net", driver="bridge")
    print(net.id)
    net.remove()

    # Volumes
    vol = client.create_volume("my-data")
    print(vol.name)
    vol.remove()

File Operations

Copy files and directories in and out of containers directly from the Container object.

with DockerClient() as client:
    with client.container("alpine:latest", command="sleep 60") as container:
        # Copy host -> container
        container.copy_to("local_data/", "/dest/path/")

        # Copy container -> host
        container.copy_from("/src/path/data.txt", "local_output/")

Real-world Example: Stirling-PDF Conversion

This example demonstrates running a Stirling-PDF container to convert a "Hello World" HTML file into a PDF and then retrieving it.

from bollard import DockerClient
from time import sleep

env = {"SECURITY_ENABLE_LOGIN": "false"}

with DockerClient().container("frooodle/s-pdf", environment=env) as container:
        # Wait for the container to be ready
        res = ""
        while "HTTP" not in res:
            res = container.exec("curl -s -I http://localhost:8080")
            sleep(1)

        # Convert the HTML to PDF
        container.exec("sh -c 'echo \"<h1>Test PDF</h1>\" > /test.html'")
        result = container.exec(
            'curl -s -w "%{http_code}" '
            "-F 'fileInput=@/test.html' "
            "http://localhost:8080/api/v1/convert/html/pdf "
            "-o /test.pdf"
        )

        # Copy the PDF to the host
        container.copy_from("/test.pdf", ".")

Kubernetes YAML Support

Execute Kubernetes YAML files directly using Podman's native play kube feature.

with DockerClient() as client:
    # Requires a valid Kubernetes YAML file (Pod, Deployment, etc.)
    result = client.play_kube("pod.yaml")

    # Returns the JSON response from Podman describing created resources
    print("Created Pods:", result.get("Pods"))