docs(dev): provide instructions to setup Polar with DevContainers

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ There is some software that is required to compile and run Polar locally. You'll
   - Mac and Windows: you can just install [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop)
   - Linux: you need to install [Docker Server](https://docs.docker.com/install/#server) and [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/) separately
 
+You can install the software directly on your machine or use automated devcontainers with docker, as explained in [Docker Approach](#docker-approach) section of this document.
+
 Once you have all of the required software installed, you can proceed to setup your local environment
 
 ### One-time Environment Setup
@@ -65,6 +67,160 @@ $ git pull
 $ yarn
 ```
 
+### Docker approach
+
+The development environment for Polar can be setup with docker. First, we
+describe manual setup. There are two docker devcontainer images:
+
+- headless: allows installing packages, linting code, running tests, and
+  compiling Polar.
+- ui: allows running graphical interface besides the same functionalities as the
+  headless.
+
+You can pull the images from DockerHub registry:
+
+```
+docker image pull polarlightning/dev:headless
+docker image pull polarlightning/dev:ui
+```
+
+Alternatively, you can build them locally. To build the headless image, run:
+
+```sh
+cd .devcontainer/
+docker image build --tag polardev:headless --file Dockerfile-headless .
+```
+
+The UI image works only on Linux with x11 as the display backend. You may want
+to build it locally to pass correct value to `DOCKER_GID` argument. To build it,
+first build the headless image, then run:
+
+```sh
+cd .devcontainer/
+docker_gid_host=$(getent group docker | awk --field-separator : '{print $3}')
+docker image build --build-arg="DOCKER_GID=${docker_gid_host}" --tag polardev:ui .
+```
+
+The `docker_gid_host` gets the GID of the docker group in the host machine,
+which is added to the non-root user in the container in build time. This is
+required if we want to use the Polar UI during development, which needs to
+connect to Docker (more on that later). This GID is not fixed but varies accross
+OS: 996 on ArchLinux, 969 on Debian, 999 on Ubuntu.
+
+If you want to use the UI, run the following command to enable forwarding
+graphical applications from the container to the host:
+
+```sh
+xhost +local:docker
+```
+
+To start a headless container, run:
+
+```sh
+cd polar/
+docker container run \
+	--volume "$PWD":/app \
+	--name polar \
+	--detach \
+  --rm \
+	polardev:headless \
+	sleep infinity
+```
+
+To start a UI container, run:
+
+```sh
+cd polar/
+docker container run \
+	--volume "$PWD":/app \
+	--volume /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
+	--volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
+	--volume "${HOME}/.config/polar":/home/dev/.config/polar \
+	--volume "${HOME}/.polar":/home/dev/.polar \
+	--env "DISPLAY=${DISPLAY}" \
+	--name polar \
+	--detach \
+  --rm \
+	polardev:ui \
+	sleep infinity
+```
+
+The above command runs a container in detached mode, putting it to sleep forever.
+The sleep command does not consume CPU or RAM, so the container is kept alive and
+we can execute commands in it.
+
+Let's see an explanation of the volumes:
+
+- `--volume "$PWD":/app` mounts the Polar application on the container.
+- `--volume /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix` allows X11 graphical applications to
+  be forward from the container to the host.
+- `--volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock` allows Docker-In-Docker,
+  which is required for the Polar UI to work (it needs to access Docker).
+- `--volume "${HOME}/.config/polar":/home/dev/.config/polar` enables persistent
+  configuration storage for the GUI app during development.
+- `--volume "${HOME}/.polar":/home/dev/.polar` enables persists data storage for
+  the GUI app during development.
+
+Now that the container is running, we can run some commands:
+
+Install the packages:
+
+```sh
+docker container exec polar yarn package
+```
+
+Notice that the first argument after `exec` is the container name (`polar` in our case).
+
+Run linter:
+
+```sh
+docker container exec polar yarn lint
+```
+
+Run tests:
+
+```sh
+docker container exec polar yarn test
+```
+
+Build the app for the current platform (the container platform is Linux):
+
+```sh
+docker container exec polar yarn package
+```
+
+Start a graphical UI for development (for `polardev:ui`), which reflects
+changes in real-time:
+
+```sh
+docker container exec polar yarn dev
+```
+
+The last example requires locally changing the `dev:electron` script in
+`package.json` and add the `--no-sanbox` to the electron command:
+
+```
+"dev:electron": "wait-on http://localhost:3000 && nodemon -I --watch ./electron/ --watch ./src/shared/ --ext ts --exec electron --no-sandbox ./public/dev.js",
+```
+
+This is because it is not possible to run chrome sandbox if the container is
+unprivileged. It is better to run a non-sandboxed electron app in a unprivileged
+docker container than to run a sandboxed electron app in a privileged docker
+container (which would be granted sysadmin rights).
+
+### Using Vscode devcontainers
+
+Install Vscode devcontainers extension and run
+`Dev Containers: Open Folder in Container...` from the command palette. This
+will open the folder in the container and allow running headless commands.
+
+If you also want to run the UI using devcontainers, then go back to the manual
+approach, start the container as instructed in order to map the proper volumes
+and allow X11 forwarding of graphical applications. Then, run
+`Dev Containers: Attach to Running Container...` from the command palette and
+select the already running container. This will open Vscode on the existing
+container with UI support. You can then run `yarn dev` to launch the UI.
+
 ## Contributing to Polar
 
 So you'd like to contribute some help to make Polar better, here's how...