Install packages on Astronomer Certified images

By default, the Astronomer Certified Docker image is distributed with a collection of pre-installed Python and OS-level packages to help users integrate with popular applications. Python-level packages are dependencies that Airflow uses, while OS-level packages are dependencies required for the underlying Debian OS. For the full list of built-in packages, read Image Architecture.

Depending on your use case and distribution of Astronomer Certified, you might want to install additional packages to your environment. This guide provides steps for installing dependencies to both Astronomer's Docker image and Python wheel.

Install packages to the Docker image​

If you use the Astronomer Certified Docker image to run Airflow, you can install packages directly onto your image via your Dockerfile. To install OS-level packages, you can specify them using a RUN directive with apt-get. For example, the following Dockerfile would install your-os-package on the image:

FROM quay.io/astronomer/ap-airflow:2.2.0-buster-onbuild
RUN apt-get update \
  && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
         <your-os-package> \
  && apt-get autoremove -yqq --purge \
  && apt-get clean \
  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

To install a specific version of an OS-level package, use the following format for your installation command:

apt-get install <your-os-package>=<version> -V

To install a Python-level package, specify the package using a RUN directive with pip install instead. For example:

FROM quay.io/astronomer/ap-airflow:2.2.0-buster-onbuild
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --user <your-python-package>

To install a specific version of a Python-level package, include your package version in a pip constraints file and copy it into your Dockerfile.

Note: The process for installing dependencies is different if you are using the Astro CLI to deploy your Docker image to Astronomer. For an Astronomer platform-based setup, see [Install packages via the Astro CLI](customize-image.md#add-python-and-os-level-dependencies.

Once you rebuild your image with docker-build, the image will have access to any packages that you specified. To confirm that a package was installed:

1. Run docker ps and retrieve the container ID of your scheduler container.

2. Run the following command:

   docker exec -it <scheduler-container-id> pip freeze | grep <package-name>
   

   If the package was successfully installed, you should see the following output:

   <package-name>==<version>
   

Install packages on a virtual machine​

To build Python and OS-level packages into a machine running the Python wheel distribution of Astronomer Certified, run the following command:

sudo -u astro ~astro/airflow-venv/bin/pip install --extra-index-url=https://pip.astronomer.io/simple/ 'astronomer-certified[<your-package>]==<airflow-version>.*'

You can also create your own Python packages and install them into your Airflow environment via a Python wheel, or you can configure an environment variable to automatically add the packages to your Astro project directory. For more information on this setup, read the Apache Airflow documentation on managing modules.

Install packages using Astronomer​

If you're using the Astro CLI to deploy the Astronomer Certified Docker image, there are alternative workflows for installing packages and other dependencies to your image. For more information, see Customize images.