# What is Haxe?

[Haxe](https://haxe.org) is an open source toolkit based on a modern, high level, strictly typed programming language, a cross-compiler, a complete cross-platform standard library and ways to access each platform's native capabilities.

The Haxe compiler can output a number of source and binary files. As of Haxe 3.4.0-rc.1, the Haxe compiler can target JavaScript, Java, C#, C++, Python, PHP, Flash SWF, ActionScript 3, Lua, and Neko.

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# About this image

This image ships a minimal Haxe toolkit:

-	the `haxe` compiler with its standard library
-	the `haxelib` library manager
-	the `neko` virtual machine

# How to use this image

The most straightforward way to use this image is to use a Haxe container as both the build and runtime environment. In your `Dockerfile`, writing something along the lines of the following will compile and run your project:

```dockerfile
FROM %%IMAGE%%:3.4

RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
WORKDIR /usr/src/app

# install dependencies
COPY *.hxml /usr/src/app/
RUN yes | haxelib install all

# compile the project
COPY . /usr/src/app
RUN haxe build.hxml

# run the output when the container starts
CMD ["neko", "Main.n"]
```

Then, build and run the Docker image:

```console
$ docker build -t my-haxe-app .
$ docker run -it --rm --name my-running-app my-haxe-app
```

## Using the onbuild variants

There are `onbuild` variants that include multiple `ONBUILD` triggers to perform all of the steps in the above Dockerfile, except there is no `CMD` instruction for running the compilation output.

Rewriting the above Dockerfile with `%%IMAGE%%:3.4-onbuild`, we will get:

```dockerfile
FROM %%IMAGE%%:3.4-onbuild

# run the output when the container starts
CMD ["neko", "Main.n"]
```

The `onbuild` variants assume the main compilation hxml file is named `build.hxml`. To use another hxml file, set the `BUILD_HXML` build argument during build:

```console
$ docker build -t my-haxe-app --build-arg BUILD_HXML=compile.hxml .
```