Skip to content

Run a Perl app

In this guide we create and deploy a simple Perl-based HTTP web server. To run this example, follow these steps:

  1. Install the kraft CLI tool and a container runtime engine, e.g. Docker.

  2. Clone the examples repository and cd into the examples/http-perl5.38/ directory:

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/kraftcloud/examples
cd examples/http-perl5.38/

Make sure to log into Unikraft Cloud by setting your token and a metro close to you. We use fra0 (Frankfurt, 🇩🇪) in this guide:

Terminal window
# Set Unikraft Cloud access token
export UKC_TOKEN=token
# Set metro to Frankfurt, DE
export UKC_METRO=fra0

When done, invoke the following command to deploy this application on Unikraft Cloud:

Terminal window
kraft cloud deploy -p 443:8080 -M 512 .

The output shows the instance URL and other details:

Terminal window
[] Deployed successfully!
────────── name: http-perl538-1p4ml
────────── uuid: eabb0080-0065-40ff-81a8-f790f1b218ee
───────── state: running
─────────── url: https://cold-brook-ba71jc16.fra0.kraft.host
───────── image: http-perl538@sha256:8c2c1f536b349c24e04ab4fec508b69f7f2349302d42a02855318ee55c12e37c
───── boot time: 64.56 ms
──────── memory: 512 MiB
─────── service: cold-brook-ba71jc16
── private fqdn: http-perl538-1p4ml.internal
──── private ip: 172.16.3.3
────────── args: /usr/bin/perl /usr/src/server.pl

In this case, the instance name is http-perl538-1p4ml and the URL is https://cold-brook-ba71jc16.fra0.kraft.host. They are different for each run.

Use curl to query the Unikraft Cloud instance of the Perl-based HTTP web server:

Terminal window
curl https://cold-brook-ba71jc16.fra0.kraft.host
Hello, World!

At any point in time, you can list information about the instance:

Terminal window
kraft cloud instance list
NAME FQDN STATE CREATED AT IMAGE MEMORY ARGS BOOT TIME
http-perl538-1p4ml cold-brook-ba71jc16.fra0.kraft.host stopped 37 seconds ago http-perl538@sha256:8c2c1f536b349c... 512 MiB /usr/bin/perl /usr/src/server.pl 64556us

When done, you can remove the instance:

Terminal window
kraft cloud instance remove http-perl538-1p4ml

Customize your Application

To customize the application, update the files in the repository, listed below:

  • server.pl: the actual Perl HTTP server
  • Kraftfile: the Unikraft Cloud specification
  • Dockerfile: the Docker-specified application filesystem
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use HTTP::Daemon;
use HTTP::Status;
use HTTP::Response;
my $daemon = HTTP::Daemon->new(
LocalAddr => '0.0.0.0',
LocalPort => 8080,
) or die;
while (my $client_connection = $daemon->accept) {
my $request = $client_connection->get_request;
my $response = HTTP::Response->new(200);
$response->content("Hello, World!\n");
$client_connection->send_response($response);
}

The following options are available for customizing the application:

  • If only updating the implementation in the server.pl source file, no other change is required.

  • If new files are added, these have to be copied in the application filesystem, using the COPY command in the Dockerfile.

  • If a new Perl source files is added, update the cmd line in the Kraftfile and replace server.pl to run that file when creating the instance.

  • More extensive changes may require expanding the Dockerfile with additional Dockerfile commands.

Learn More

Use the --help option for detailed information on using Unikraft Cloud:

Terminal window
kraft cloud --help

Or visit the CLI Reference.