Build and Installation

Pre-built binaries, as well as Debian and RPM packages, are available here for Linux, specifically x86_64 and arm64 architectures.

To start a container hosting wfx, follow these commands:

# create a named volume to persist data (only needed the first time)
docker volume create wfx-db
docker run --rm -v wfx-db:/home/nonroot \
    -p 8080:8080 -p 8081:8081 \
    ghcr.io/siemens/wfx:latest

If pre-built binaries are not available (refer to go tool dist list for alternative platforms and architectures, such as Windows or macOS), or if specific features need to be disabled during compilation, building wfx from source is necessary.

Building wfx

A recent Go compiler (see go.mod):

# build wfx
go build

# build the rest (optional)
go build ./cmd/wfxctl
go build ./cmd/wfx-loadtest
go build ./cmd/wfx-viewer

The above commands produce the following binaries:

wfx: The server component providing the RESTful APIs for managing workflows and jobs.
wfxctl: Command line client for interacting with the wfx.
wfx-loadtest: Command line tool for load-testing a wfx instance.
wfx-viewer: Convenience tool to visualize workflows in different formats (e.g. PlantUML, Mermaid).

All binaries have extensive help texts when invoked with --help.

Build Tags

Go build tags can be used to opt-out from various features at compile-time. By default, all features are enabled. The following build tags are available:

Build Tag	Description
`no_sqlite`	Disable built-in SQLite support
`libsqlite3`	Dynamically link against `libsqlite3`
`no_postgres`	Disable built-in PostgreSQL support
`no_mysql`	Disable built-in MySQL support
`no_plugin`	Disable support for external plugins
`no_swagger`	Disable legacy `swagger.json` endpoint

Example:

go build -tags no_mysql,no_sqlite

Note:

wfx requires at least one persistent storage to save workflows and jobs
build tags can impact the size of the wfx binary file and may as well have implications for the software clearing process, including obligations that must be met

Debian

The Go toolchain provided by Debian stable is often outdated; it’s typically end-of-life upstream but still maintained by Debian’s security team. Therefore, to compile wfx from source in Debian stable, the -backports repository is necessary. In contrast, for Debian testing, it usually works out of the box since it ships with a recent version of the Go toolchain.

Installing wfx

wfx’s release binaries are statically linked and self-contained. Hence, an installation isn’t strictly necessary, although if available, it’s recommended to pick the distro packages (e.g. *.deb for Debian-based distros).

go install github.com/siemens/wfx@latest

Alternatively, a pre-built Debian package is provided.

For convenience and ease of use, all binaries come with shell completions available for Bash, Fish and Zsh. To install the completions, refer to the binary’s completion --help output, e.g. wfx completion bash --help.