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) as well as GNU make wrapping the go build commands is required to build wfx and its associated tools:

make

The above command produces 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 are used to select compiled-in support for various features. The following persistent storage selection build tags are available:

By default, all built-in persistent storage options are enabled (wfx requires at least one persistent storage to save workflows and jobs).

Note that the selection of 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.

To build and compile-in, e.g., SQLite persistent storage support only, according GO_TAGS must be given:

make GO_TAGS=sqlite

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The Go toolchain provided by Debian stable is often outdated; it’s typically end-of-life upstream but still maintained by Debian’s security team.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).

Nevertheless, for convenience on UNIXy systems,

make DESTDIR= prefix= install

installs the binaries to /bin. Giving a different DESTDIR and/or prefix allows to adjust to other locations.

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.