devcontainer

Devcontainer

A multi-purpose Docker on Docker or Docker in Docker image to be used as a Devcontainer.

• Image tags: ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer

Important

This image used to be uploaded to Docker Hub as felipecrs/devcontainer but it no longer is. Please update to the new tag ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer.

Features

• Based on Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat: a more common distribution to run your development environment on.
• Fully functional Docker on Docker: shares the host's Docker daemon to avoid the overhead of running a nested Docker daemon. Comes with the docker-on-docker-shim to provide a seamless experience.
• Also supports Docker in Docker: you can choose not to share the host's Docker daemon, and therefore run docker from within the devcontainer in a fully isolated manner.
• Several common packages installed: the common tools frequently needed are already baked in.
• Bundles pkgx, a convenient package manager that allows you to easily and quickly install the necessary tools for your project. Example: pkgx install node@18 npm@10.
• Facilitates sharing access to your devcontainer by providing an opt-in SSH server. Read more about it here.
• Can also be used as a Jenkins dockerfile agent, ensuring both your development and CI/CD environment are the same. Read more about it here.

Usage

Command line

Spin this image in your terminal, if you want to play with it:

# --rm: removes the container and its volumes after exiting
# -it: allows to interact with the container
# --volume: shares the host's Docker socket with the container
# --network=host: allows to access ports from other containers running on the host
docker run --rm -it --volume=/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock --network=host \
  ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer

Alternatively, you can try the Docker in Docker mode:

# --privileged: needed for running Docker in Docker
docker run -it --rm --privileged ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer

Devcontainer in Visual Studio Code

The main purpose of this image is to be used as a Devcontainer in Visual Studio Code, or in GitHub Codespaces.

It is a good practice to run your development environment in a container, so you can have a consistent environment across your team.

Considering you have a .devcontainer/Dockerfile like this:

# .devcontainer/Dockerfile
FROM ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer

# Install your project's dependencies
RUN pkgx install nodejs.org@20 npmjs.com@10 \
    && node --version \
    && npm --version

To use it as a Docker on Docker devcontainer:

// .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
{
  "build": {
    "dockerfile": "Dockerfile"
  },
  "overrideCommand": false,
  "mounts": [
    "source=/var/run/docker.sock,target=/var/run/docker.sock,type=bind"
  ],
  "runArgs": ["--network=host"]
}

Or, to use it as a Docker in Docker devcontainer:

// .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
{
  "build": {
    "dockerfile": "Dockerfile"
  },
  "overrideCommand": false,
  "privileged": true
}

Jenkinsfile dockerfile agent

Click here to show

When running as a Jenkinsfile docker agent, Jenkins will run the container as the host user instead of the default devcontainer user.

This image comes with fixuid, which will automatically fix the user and group IDs of the devcontainer user that comes with the image to match the host user.

fixdockergid is also included, which will fix the group ID of the docker group to match the host's docker group ID.

This ensures file permissions are correct when running as a Jenkinsfile dockerfile agent, as well as ensures docker from within the container still works in docker on docker mode.

Considering you have a .devcontainer/Dockerfile like this:

# .devcontainer/Dockerfile
FROM ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer

# Install your project's dependencies
RUN pkgx install openjdk.org@21 maven.apache.org@3 \
    && java --version \
    && mvn --version

To run it in Jenkins through Docker on Docker mode (recommended if your Jenkins provides ephemeral Docker in Docker agents):

// Jenkinsfile
pipeline {
  agent {
    dockerfile {
      dir '.devcontainer'
      // --group-add=docker: is needed when using docker exec to run commands,
      // which is what Jenkins does when running as a Jenkinsfile docker agent
      args '--volume=/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock --network=host --group-add=docker'
    }
  }
  stages {
    stage('Verify docker works') {
      steps {
        sh 'docker version'
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, you can use the Docker in Docker mode (recommended in case your Jenkins provides static agents):

// Jenkinsfile
pipeline {
  agent {
    dockerfile {
      dir '.devcontainer'
      args '--privileged --group-add=docker'
    }
  }
  stages {
    stage('Verify docker works') {
      steps {
        sh 'docker version'
      }
    }
  }
}

Accessing the devcontainer through SSH

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This image comes with a SSH server installed and configured, but it comes disabled by default.

To enable it, you need to add the SSHD_ENABLED=true environment variable when running the container.

The SSHD server will run on port 22 and you can use the devcontainer user to login, without any password.

The image also comes with a convenience script at /ssh-command/get.sh that will output the SSH command to connect to the container, which you can use to connect to the container through SSH. Example:

docker run --rm -it --privileged \
  -e SSHD_ENABLED=true \
  -e NODE_NAME=$(hostname -I | awk '{ print $1 }') \
  -e SSHD_PORT=2222 \
  -p 2222:22 \
  ghcr.io/felipecrs/devcontainer \
  /ssh-command/get.sh