Bazel vs Docker Compose

Overview

Bazel

Stacks314

Followers579

Votes133

Docker Compose

Stacks22.3K

Followers16.5K

Votes501

GitHub Stars36.4K

Forks5.5K

Bazel vs Docker Compose: What are the differences?

Introduction: In the realm of software development, Bazel and Docker Compose are two widely used tools that streamline the process of building and deploying applications. Understanding the key differences between these tools is crucial for developers to choose the most suitable option for their projects.

Configuration Language: Bazel uses its own domain-specific language called Starlark for configuration, which allows more fine-grained control over the build process. On the other hand, Docker Compose uses YAML for defining services, networks, and volumes, providing a more straightforward and familiar syntax for many developers.
Use Cases: Bazel is primarily focused on building and testing software across different platforms, making it ideal for large-scale projects with complex dependencies. In contrast, Docker Compose is designed for defining and running multi-container Docker applications, simplifying the setup and management of services for development and testing environments.
Performance: Bazel is known for its highly efficient and fast build process, thanks to its advanced caching mechanisms and dependency tracking. Docker Compose, while efficient for running containers, may not offer the same level of performance optimization for building applications.
Ecosystem Integration: Bazel has strong integration with other development tools and platforms, such as CI/CD pipelines and IDEs, making it a versatile choice for modern software development workflows. Docker Compose, on the other hand, is tightly integrated with Docker Engine and Docker Hub, providing seamless deployment and scaling of containerized applications.
Portability: Bazel projects can be built and run on various platforms without significant modifications, enabling cross-platform development and testing. Docker Compose, while portable across different environments, may require adjustments for specific container runtimes and dependencies.
Container Orchestration: Docker Compose is well-suited for orchestrating multiple containerized services on a single host for development and testing purposes. On the other hand, Bazel focuses on providing a robust build and test framework rather than container orchestration capabilities.

In Summary, understanding the differences between Bazel and Docker Compose is essential for selecting the appropriate tool based on the specific requirements of the software development project.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Detailed Comparison

Bazel	Docker Compose
Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.	With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.
Multi-language support: Bazel supports Java, Objective-C and C++ out of the box, and can be extended to support arbitrary programming languages;High-level build language: Projects are described in the BUILD language, a concise text format that describes a project as sets of small interconnected libraries, binaries and tests. By contrast, with tools like Make you have to describe individual files and compiler invocations;Multi-platform support: The same tool and the same BUILD files can be used to build software for different architectures, and even different platforms. At Google, we use Bazel to build both server applications running on systems in our data centers and client apps running on mobile phones;Reproducibility: In BUILD files, each library, test, and binary must specify its direct dependencies completely. Bazel uses this dependency information to know what must be rebuilt when you make changes to a source file, and which tasks can run in parallel. This means that all builds are incremental and will always produce the same result;Scalable: Bazel can handle large builds	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 36.4K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 5.5K
Stacks 314	Stacks 22.3K
Followers 579	Followers 16.5K
Votes 133	Votes 501
Pros & Cons
Pros 28 Fast 20 Deterministic incremental builds 17 Correct 16 Multi-language 14 Enforces declared inputs/outputs Cons 3 No Windows Support 2 Bad IntelliJ support 1 Constant breaking changes 1 Lack of Documentation 1 Learning Curve	Pros 123 Multi-container descriptor 110 Fast development environment setup 79 Easy linking of containers 68 Simple yaml configuration 60 Easy setup Cons 9 Tied to single machine 5 Still very volatile, changing syntax often
Integrations
Java Objective-C C++	Docker

What are some alternatives to Bazel, Docker Compose?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Apache Maven

Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

Pants

Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

Related Comparisons

Bazel vs Docker Compose: What are the differences?

Configuration Language: Bazel uses its own domain-specific language called Starlark for configuration, which allows more fine-grained control over the build process. On the other hand, Docker Compose uses YAML for defining services, networks, and volumes, providing a more straightforward and familiar syntax for many developers.
Use Cases: Bazel is primarily focused on building and testing software across different platforms, making it ideal for large-scale projects with complex dependencies. In contrast, Docker Compose is designed for defining and running multi-container Docker applications, simplifying the setup and management of services for development and testing environments.
Performance: Bazel is known for its highly efficient and fast build process, thanks to its advanced caching mechanisms and dependency tracking. Docker Compose, while efficient for running containers, may not offer the same level of performance optimization for building applications.
Ecosystem Integration: Bazel has strong integration with other development tools and platforms, such as CI/CD pipelines and IDEs, making it a versatile choice for modern software development workflows. Docker Compose, on the other hand, is tightly integrated with Docker Engine and Docker Hub, providing seamless deployment and scaling of containerized applications.
Portability: Bazel projects can be built and run on various platforms without significant modifications, enabling cross-platform development and testing. Docker Compose, while portable across different environments, may require adjustments for specific container runtimes and dependencies.
Container Orchestration: Docker Compose is well-suited for orchestrating multiple containerized services on a single host for development and testing purposes. On the other hand, Bazel focuses on providing a robust build and test framework rather than container orchestration capabilities.

In Summary, understanding the differences between Bazel and Docker Compose is essential for selecting the appropriate tool based on the specific requirements of the software development project.

Bazel vs Docker Compose

Overview