scidvspc docker image

To run this image, share the X11 socket or use any of the other methods to run X11 Apps in Docker.

For example, you can run the image like this:

docker run -it -u 1000:1000 --rm -e HOME \
  -e DISPLAY=unix:0 -e XAUTHORITY=/tmp/xauth \
  -v $XAUTHORITY:/tmp/xauth -v $HOME:$HOME \
  -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix kayvan/scidvspc

Mapping $HOME into the container will make the ~/.scidvspc/ directory and configuration files persist.

MacOS: Using this image instead of the native Mac App

On MacOS, if you wish to run this image instead of the native SCID vs Mac port, you need to install XQuartz and socat. With brew installed, simply do this:

brew cask install xquartz
brew install socat

Then you can place this bash snippet in your ~/.bash_profile:

__my_ip=$(ifconfig|grep 'inet '|grep -v '127.0.0.1'| \
            head -1|awk '{print $2}')
__scid_home_dir=~/docker/scid_home # pick a place for the .scidvspc dir
scid() {
  killall -0 quartz-wm > /dev/null 2>&1
  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "ERROR: Quartz is not running. Start Quartz and try again."
  else
    socat TCP-LISTEN:6001,reuseaddr,fork UNIX-CLIENT:\"$DISPLAY\" &
    SOCAT_SCID_PID=$!
    docker run --rm -e HOME=$__scid_home_dir \
      -e XAUTHORITY=/tmp/xauth -v ~/.Xauthority:/tmp/xauth \
      -e DISPLAY=$__my_ip:1 --net host -v $HOME:$HOME kayvan/scidvspc
    kill $SOCAT_SCID_PID
  fi
}

Now, scid should launch the scidvspc GUI. The .scidvspc directory will end up wherever you set __scid_home_dir and will not conflict with the native MacOS application.

Chess Engines

In addition to the engines included with the scidvspc sources, this image includes the latest stockfish (at /usr/games/stockfish)

Also included is an ssh client. This makes it possible to run the image and add any other uci chess engine running on the host to the Engine list available in scidvspc.

On your Docker host, set up your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys to include its own ssh key.

Now, in the Tools->Analysis Engines menu, you can add any command by putting in the following info:

Command: /usr/bin/ssh
Parameters: youruser@172.17.0.1 whatever command

This even includes running another container. For example, you can run tagged versions of the kayvan/stockfish image:

Command: /usr/bin/ssh
Parameters: kayvan@172.17.0.1 docker run --rm -i kayvan/stockfish:151117

Reference

• http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/
• https://stockfishchess.org/
• https://hub.docker.com/r/kayvan/stockfish/