qmcgaw/basedevcontainer repository overview

⁠Base Dev Container

Base Alpine development container for Visual Studio Code, used as base image by other images

⁠Features

• qmcgaw/basedevcontainer:alpine (or :latest) based on Alpine 3.23 in 250MB
• qmcgaw/basedevcontainer:debian based on Debian Trixie Slim in 438MB
• All images are compatible with amd64, 386, arm64, armv7, armv6 and ppc64le CPU architectures
• Contains the packages:
  • libstdc++: needed by the VS code server
  • zsh: main shell instead of /bin/sh
  • git: interact with Git repositories
  • openssh-client: use SSH keys
  • nano: edit files from the terminal
• Contains the binaries:
  • gh⁠: interact with Github with the terminal
  • docker
  • docker-compose and docker compose docker plugin
  • docker buildx⁠ docker plugin
  • bit⁠
  • devtainr⁠
• Custom integrated terminal
  • Based on zsh and oh-my-zsh⁠
  • Uses the Powerlevel10k⁠ theme
  • With Logo LS⁠ as a replacement for ls
    • Shows information on login; easily extensible
• Cross platform
  • Easily bind mount your SSH keys to use with git
  • Manage your host Docker from within the dev container on Linux, MacOS and Windows
• Docker uses buildkit by default, with the latest Docker client binary.
• Extensible with docker-compose.yml
• Supports SSH keys with Linux, OSX and Windows

⁠Requirements

• Docker⁠ installed and running
  • If you use OSX, share the directory ~/.ssh and the directory of your project with Docker Desktop
• Docker Compose⁠ installed
• VS code⁠ installed
• VS code dev containers extension⁠ installed

⁠Setup for a project

1. Download this repository and put the .devcontainer directory in your project. Alternatively, use this shell script from your project path

   # we assume you are in /yourpath/myproject
   mkdir .devcontainer
   cd .devcontainer
   wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qdm12/basedevcontainer/master/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
   wget -q https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qdm12/basedevcontainer/master/.devcontainer/docker-compose.yml
   

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2. If you have a .vscode/settings.json, eventually move the settings to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json in the "settings" section as .vscode/settings.json take precedence over the settings defined in .devcontainer/devcontainer.json.

3. Open the command palette in Visual Studio Code (CTRL+SHIFT+P) and select Dev Containers: Open Folder in Container... and choose your project directory

⁠More

⁠devcontainer.json

• You can change the "postCreateCommand" to be relevant to your situation. In example it could be echo "downloading" && npm i to combine two commands
• You can change the extensions installed in the Docker image within the "extensions" array
• VScode settings can be changed or added in the "settings" object.

⁠docker-compose.yml

• Add containers to be launched with your development container. In example, let's add a postgres database.

  1. Add this block to .devcontainer/docker-compose.yml

       database:
         image: postgres
         restart: always
         environment:
           POSTGRES_PASSWORD: password
     

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  2. Open the command palette in Visual Studio Code (CTRL+SHIFT+P)

  3. Select Dev-Containers: Rebuild Container

⁠Development image

You can build and extend the Docker development image to suit your needs.

• You can build the development image yourself:

  docker build -t qmcgaw/basedevcontainer -f alpine.Dockerfile  https://github.com/qdm12/basedevcontainer.git
  

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• You can extend the Docker image qmcgaw/basedevcontainer with your own instructions.

  1. Create a file .devcontainer/Dockerfile with FROM qmcgaw/basedevcontainer

  2. Append instructions to the Dockerfile created. For example:

     • Add more Go packages and add an alias

       FROM qmcgaw/basedevcontainer
       COPY . .
       RUN echo "alias ls='ls -al'" >> ~/.zshrc
       

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     • Add some Alpine packages:

       FROM qmcgaw/basedevcontainer
       RUN apk add bind-tools
       

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  3. Modify .devcontainer/docker-compose.yml and add build: . in the vscode service.

  4. Open the command palette in Visual Studio Code (CTRL+SHIFT+P)

  5. Select Dev-Containers: Rebuild Container

• You can bind mount a file at /root/.welcome.sh to modify the welcome message.

⁠TODO

• bit complete yes flag
• Firewall, see this⁠
• Extend another docker-compose.yml
• Fonts for host OS for the VS code shell
• Gifs and images
• Install VS code server and extensions in image, waiting for this issue⁠