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Builds

Learn about Actor build numbers, versioning, and how to use specific Actor version in runs. Understand an Actor's lifecycle and manage its cache.

Understand Actor builds​

Before an Actor can be run, it needs to be built. The build process creates a snapshot of a specific version of the Actor's settings, including its source code and environment variables. This snapshot is then used to create a Docker image containing everything the Actor needs for its run, such as npm packages, web browsers, etc.

Build numbers​

Each build is assigned a unique build number in the format MAJOR.MINOR.BUILD (e.g. 1.2.345):

  • MAJOR.MINOR corresponds to the Actor version number
  • BUILD is an automatically incremented number starting at 1.

Build resources​

By default, builds have the following resource allocations:

  • Timeout: 1800 seconds
  • Memory: 4096 MB

Check out the Resource limits section for more details.

Versioning​

To support active development, Actors can have multiple versions of source code and associated settings, such as the base image and environment. Each version is denoted by a version number of the form MAJOR.MINOR, following Semantic Versioning principles.

For example, an Actor might have:

  • Production version 1.1
  • Beta version 1.2 that contains new features but is still backward compatible
  • Development version 2.0 that contains breaking changes.

Tags​

Tags simplify the process of specifying which build to use when running an Actor. Instead of using a version number, you can use a tag such as latest or beta. Tags are unique, meaning only one build can be associated with a specific tag.

To set a tag for builds of a specific Actor version:

  1. Set the Build tag property.
  2. When a new build of that version is successfully finished, it's automatically assigned the tag.

By default, the builds are set to the latest tag.

Cache​

To speed up builds triggered via API, you can use the useCache=1 parameter. This instructs the build process to use cached Docker images and layers instead of pulling the latest copies and building each layer from scratch. Note that the cached images and layers might not always be available on the server building the image, the useCache parameter only functions on a best-effort basis.

Clean builds

Running builds from the Console By default, the Console uses cached data when starting a build. You can also run a clean build without using the cache. To run a clean build:

  1. Go to your Actor page.
  2. Select Source > Code.
  3. Locate the Start button. Next to it, click on the arrow & choose Clean build