website: template builders

website/source/docs/templates/builders.html.markdown

+---
+layout: "docs"
+---
+
+# Templates: Builders
+
+Within the template, the builders section contains an array of all the
+builders that Packer should use to generate a machine images for the template.
+
+Builders are responsible for creating machines and generating images from
+them for various platforms. For example, there are separate builders for
+EC2, VMware, VirtualBox, etc. Packer comes with many builders by default,
+and can also be extended to add new builders.
+
+This documentation page will cover how to configure a builder in a template.
+The specific configuration options available for each builder, however,
+must be referenced from the documentation for that specific builder.
+
+Within a template, a section of builder definitions looks like this:
+
+<pre class="prettyprint">
+{
+  "builders": [
+    ... one or more builder definitions here ...
+  ]
+}
+</pre>
+
+## Builder Definition
+
+A single builder definition maps to exactly one [build](/docs/basics/terminology.html#term-build).
+A builder definition is a JSON object that requires at least a `type` key. The
+`type` is the name of the builder that will be used to create a machine image
+for the build.
+
+In addition to the `type`, other keys configure the builder itself. For
+example, the AWS builder requires an `access_key`, `secret_key`, and
+some other settings. These are placed directly within the builder definition.
+
+An example builder definition is shown below, in this case configuring
+the AWS builder:
+
+<pre class="prettyprint">
+{
+  "type": "amazon-ebs",
+  "access_key": "...",
+  "secret_key": "..."
+}
+</pre>
+
+## Named Builds
+
+Each build in Packer has a name. By default, the name is just the name
+of the builder being used. In general, this is good enough. Names only serve
+as an indicator in the output of what is happening. If you want, however,
+you can specify a custom name using the `name` key within the builder definition.
+
+This is particularly useful if you have multiple builds defined that use
+the same underlying builder. In this case, you must specify a name for at least
+one of them since the names must be unique.

website/source/layouts/docs.erb

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 
 							<li class="nav-header">Templates</li>
 							<li><a href="/docs/templates/introduction.html">Introduction</a></li>
-							<li><a href="#">Builders</a></li>
+							<li><a href="/docs/templates/builders.html">Builders</a></li>
 							<li><a href="#">Provisioners</a></li>
 
 							<li class="nav-header">Builders</li>