Creating a development container involves setting up a standardized and reproducible development environment that can run consistently across different workstations or CI/CD environments. This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating a basic development container using commonly used tools like Docker and Visual Studio Code (VS Code).
Prerequisites
Docker installed and running on your machine
Visual Studio Code with the Remote - Containers extension installed
Basic familiarity with Docker and VS Code
Step 1: Create a Dockerfile
A Dockerfile specifies the instructions to create the image for your development environment.
Create a new directory for your project and navigate into it:
Inside the directory, create a file named
Dockerfile
with the following content:
Step 2: Create a devcontainer.json File
The devcontainer.json
file describes how VS Code should interact with the development container.
- In the same directory, create a file named
devcontainer.json
with the following content:
Step 3: Open the Project in VS Code
Open the directory you created in VS Code. Press F1
to open the command palette and select Remote-Containers: Reopen in Container
. This will build the Docker image if it's not already built and start a container with your development environment, attaching VS Code to it.
Step 4: Develop Inside the Container
Now you are inside a containerized development environment. You can open a terminal in VS Code, and you'll be interacting with the shell inside the container. Install your project's dependencies, develop your code, and run your applications all within the container.
You can add more tools and dependencies you need for your project by modifying the Dockerfile and rebuilding the container.
Step 5: Maintaining the Dev Container
As you iterate over your dev container, you may find you need to add additional tools or modify settings. You can update the Dockerfile and devcontainer.json
as needed, and rebuild your container to apply changes using the Remote-Containers: Rebuild Container
command in VS Code.
Remember when you commit your project, include the .devcontainer
folder with the devcontainer.json
and the Dockerfile. This ensures that anyone who clones the repository can get started with the same environment.
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