gp-base-devenv: Build a dev containers for VSCode

Copyright (c) 2023, Greg PFISTER. MIT License

About

This is a simple Ubuntu container to use as base image for building development to be used as Visual Studio Code Remote Container.

We build image for Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04.

Along with the basic requirements, the image provides:

• zsh + starship
• vim with a few plugins (airline, syntastic, ripgrep, nerdcommenter, vim-colorschemes, ctrlp.vim)
• additionnal tools like less, curl, nmap, htop, ...
• a vscode user account
• sudo passwordless commands
• tmux
• nginx light

The image can be found here.

The following image are using this base image:

• ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-node-devenv: a base image to build a Node.js app in a VS Code dev container
• ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-docker-devenv: a base image to build a Docker app in a VS Code dev container

Volumes

In order to persist user data, a volume for the /home folder is set. The root user will not be persisted.

Volume	Description
/home	Persist the user data stored in their home folder

Build, scan and push

Versioning

Image version contains the Ubuntu version and the build version, using the format <Ubuntu version>-<Build version>. The build version refers to the latest Dockerfile script, when modification consists of fixing (patch change), or adding or removing something significant (minor change) or breaking (major).

For example:

Image	Description
ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04	The latest build using Ubuntu 22.04
ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04-1	The latest build 1.x using Ubuntu 22.04
ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04-1.1	The latest build 1.1.x using Ubuntu 22.04
ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04-1.1.0	The latest build 1.1.0 using Ubuntu 22.04
ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04-1.0	The latest build 1.0.x using Ubuntu 22.04
ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04-1.0.0	The latest build 1.0.0 using Ubuntu 22.04

For CI/CD, the build version is store in .version file. The build version is in the format SemVer.

Only the latest version (MAJOR, MAJOR.MINOR and MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH) is been built daily.

Testing locally using -dev images

When you are making change to the image, use :develop at the end of the build, run and scan commands. The *-dev tag should never be pushed...

Cross-platform building

Setup

In order to build x-platform, docker buildx must be enabled (more info here). Then, instead of build command, buildx command should be used (for example: npm run buildx:develop will create a cross-platform image tagged develop).

You will need to create a multiarch builder:

./src/scripts/buildx/setup.sh

On successful completion, it should at least have platforms linux/arm64, linux/arm/v7 and linux/amd64:

[+] Building 5.8s (1/1) FINISHED
 => [internal] booting buildkit                                             5.8s
 => => pulling image moby/buildkit:buildx-stable-1                            7s
 => => creating container buildx_buildkit_multiarch0                          1s
Name:   multiarch
Driver: docker-container

Nodes:
Name:      multiarch0
Endpoint:  unix:///var/run/docker.sock
Status:    running
Platforms: linux/arm64, linux/amd64, linux/amd64/v2, linux/riscv64,
           linux/ppc64le, linux/s390x, linux/386, linux/mips64le, linux/mips64,
           linux/arm/v7, linux/arm/v6

Build commands

Once the previous step is completed, simpy run to build the current version:

(cd src && ./scripts/buildx/build.sh)

Build using local architecture (for local testing)

Build the development image

To build using a specific Ubuntu version, use:

(cd scr && ./scripts/dev/image/build.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)

where UBUNTU_VERSION is either 22.04 or 24.04.

It will create an image ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv tagged with the current version (see src/.version file) and -dev suffix.

You may alter the .src/.version file should you want to have different tags or names, however if you PR your change, it will be rejected. The ideal solution is to run the docker build command instead.

To remove the created image (named: ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:<UBUNTU_VERIONS>-<VERSION>-dev), simply use:

(cd scr && ./scripts/dev/image/rm.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)

Run or create/start/stop/exec a container

To run an interactive container of a give Ubuntu version, simple use:

(cd src && ./scripts/dev/container/run.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)

where UBUNTU_VERSION is either 22.04 or 24.04.

Alternatively, you can create and start a container to run in background, and execute scripts on this container, using the following scripts:

Action	Script
create	(cd src && ./scripts/dev/container/create.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)
start	(cd src && ./scripts/dev/container/start.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)
stop	(cd src && ./scripts/dev/container/stop.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)
exec	(cd src && ./scripts/dev/container/exec.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>) <COMMAND>

To remove the created container (named: gp-base-devenv:<UBUNTU_VERIONS>-<VERSION>-dev), simply use:

(cd src && ./scripts/dev/container/rm.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)

Scan

To scan the image of a give Ubuntu version, simple use:

(cd src && ./scripts/dev/scan.sh <UBUNTU_VERSION>)

where UBUNTU_VERSION is either 22.04 or 24.04.

Build from this image

Should you want to make other changes, the ideal solution is to build from this image. For example, here's the way to set the image to a different timezone than "Europe/Paris" (the default one):

FROM ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04

ENV TZ="America/New_York"

# Switch to root
USER root

# Reconfigure tzdata
RUN dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata

# Update all packages
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get upgrade -y && \
    apt-get autoremove -y && \
    apt-get autoclean

# Switch back to vscode
USER vscode

Important: Unless you really want to use the root user, you should always make sure the vscode is the last one activated.

Updating the image: There is yet no plan to create nighly build, ensuring the image is always up to date. Therefore, when building yours from this one, run the update process.

Version

Image	Ubuntu	amd64	arm64	arm/v7	Daily build
22.04	22.04 (LTS)	X	X	X	Yes
22.04-1.x	22.04 (LTS)	X	X	X	Yes
24.04	24.04 (LTS)	X	X	X	Yes
24.04-1.x	24.04 (LTS)	X	X	X	Yes

FAQ

1. How to require password for sudo command ?
2. How to change nginx settings ?

1. How to require password for sudo command ?

You will have to build from this image to disable the the password less sudo command. Typically create a Dockerfile like:

FROM ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04

ARG VSCODE_PASSWORD="dummy"

# Switch to root to make changes
USER root

# Remove the specific config for sudo and add to sudo group
RUN rm /etc/sudoers.d/vscode && \
    usermod -aG sudo vscode

# Change the password.
RUN usermod -p $VSCODE_PASSWORD vscode

# Switch back to vscode
USER vscode

If you simply want to get rid of sudo:

FROM ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04

# Switch to root to make changes
USER root

# Remove the specific config for sudo and add to sudo group
RUN rm /etc/sudoers.d/vscode && \
    apt-get purge -y sudo

# Switch back to vscode
USER vscode

2. How to change nginx settings ?

nginx can be setup by updating the configuration found on /etc/nginx.

FROM ghcr.io/gp-devenv/gp-base-devenv:22.04

# Switch to root to make changes
USER root

# Install whatever should be served using SSL

# Remove provious config
RUN rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*
COPY <SITE_CONFIGURATION> /etc/nginx/sites-available/
RUN ln -s /etc/nginx/site-enabled/<SITE_CONFIGURATION> /etc/nginx/site-available/<SITE_CONFIGURATION>

# Remove the specific config for sudo and add to sudo group
RUN rm /etc/sudoers.d/vscode && \
    apt-get purge -y sudo

# Switch back to vscode
USER vscode
WORKDIR /workspace

EXPOSE <PORT>

ENTRYPOINT [ "sudo", "/entrypoint.sh"]

Known issues

See known issues here.

Contributions

See instructions here.

License

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

See license here.