Development Containers

Development containers, or dev containers, are Docker containers that are specifically configured to provide a fully featured development environment.

• GitHub: https://github.com/entelecheia/dev-containers

Development containers seek to find ways to develop, build, test, and deploy software in a containerized environment without the need to install any software on your local machine.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• NVIDIA Docker (for GPU support, Optional)

Build and Run

1. Build the Docker image:

   make docker-build

   The docker.ubuntu-20.04.env file includes various configuration options and environment variables. The docker-compose.ubuntu-20.04.yaml file uses these variables to customize the behavior of the services. This is a common practice when you want to set different configurations for development, testing, and production environments. The Dockerfile.ubuntu-20.04 file uses these variables to customize the Docker build. These files are automatically generated by Copier when you run the copier copy command.

2. Start the Docker container:

   make docker-up

   This will start a Docker container with the image built in the previous step. The container will run a bash lauch script that starts the application.

Usage

After starting the container, you can access the application at localhost:<CONTAINER_HOST_WEB_SVC_PORT>. By default, the port is set to 19090.

You can also SSH into the container using the SSH port specified in APP_HOST_SSH_PORT. By default, the port is set to 2929.

Volumes

The docker-compose.ubuntu-20.04.yaml file specifies several volumes that bind mount directories on the host to directories in the container. These include the cache, the workspace directory, and the scripts directory. Changes made in these directories will persist across container restarts.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues with this setup, please check the following:

• Make sure Docker and Docker Compose are installed correctly.
• Make sure NVIDIA Docker is installed if you're planning to use GPU acceleration.
• Ensure the environment variables in the docker.ubuntu-20.04.env file are correctly set.
• Check the Docker and Docker Compose logs for any error messages.

Environment Variables

In Docker, environment variables can be used in the docker-compose.ubuntu-20.04.yaml file to customize the behavior of the services.

The docker-compose command has an --env-file argument, but it's used to set the environment variables for the services defined in the docker-compose.yaml file, not for the docker-compose command itself. The variables defined in the --env-file will not be substituted into the docker-compose.yaml file.

However, the environment variables we set in the .docker/docker.ubuntu-20.04.env file are used in the docker-compose.app.yaml file. For example, the $BUILD_FROM variable is used to set the base image for the Docker build. Therefore, we need to export these variables to the shell environment before running the docker-compose command.

This method also allows us to use shell commands in the variable definitions, like "$(whoami)" for the USERNAME variable, which wouldn't be possible if we used the --env-file argument. Shell commands in the .env file are not evaluated.

Files for Environment Variables

• .docker/docker.common.env: Common environment variables for all Docker images.
• .docker/docker.ubuntu-20.04.env: Environment variables for the Docker image.
• .env.secret: Secret environment variables that are not committed to the repository.

Changelog

See the CHANGELOG for more information.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see the contributing guidelines for more information.

License

This project is released under the MIT License.