Starts and attaches a sandboxed shell using docker with access to the current or project directory. It could also be described as chroot mixed with containers.
Please visit https://github.com/jrz/container-shell for the latest version.
I like using containers to keep a project's dependencies and effects contained.
Sometimes I simply want to have a sandboxed shell when using or testing a tool.
With the recent supplychain attacks this has become more important to me.
In essence, it starts a container with a keep-alive loop which runs until no terminals are connected by checking the number of /dev/pty/*.
After it has created the container, it immediately starts a shell for it.
The container id is stored in .docker.shell.cid in order to re-connect subsequent shells. If you start another shell, it will first determine if it needs to start/create the container.
It can read a Shellfile in a project directory to configure things like the docker image. In order to find the Shellfile or .docker.shell.cid it checks the current dir and all parents.
There is no installer or package yet. Simply copy the shell script to any directory in your PATH. Make sure that the executable bit is set. For example:
cp shell /usr/local/bin/
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/shell
The CLI will most likely change. The program can be used ad-hoc or using a Shellfile:
> shell [docker-image]
For example shell debian:bookworm
Create a Shellfile in the current or project directory. The Shellfile will be sourced to override default settings. Example:
> vi Shellfile
DOCKER_PREFIX="sc-myproject"
DOCKER_OPTS="--platform linux/aarch64"
DOCKER_IMAGE="debian:bookworm"
TERM_BG_COLOR="#011279"
MOUNTPOINT="/project"
> shell
I know this is not how docker is intended to work, but this is what I want/need.
It uses docker for now, but could also support nixos via OrbStack 'machines' in the future. See orbstack/orbstack#169
To use the ITERM2_PROFILE setting instead of background colors, create a new profile in iTerm2 with the name "shell-container" (or something else). Change its settings such as background color. This is the recommended method for now for iTerm2 as it does not support OSC 111 (reset terminal background color) yet and I currently assume a default black background.
The bindmount fails when the project directory is moved after creation.
- It'd be nice to be able to automatically build a Dockerfile when it's in the current directory.
- Add rm command to clean up containers.
- Make the default domain compatible with other things than OrbStack
- Command like shell init / create to create a template Shellfile
- Add PACKAGE_LIST to Shellfile to automatically build a derived docker image