remote-environments

Collection of Docker-based development environments accessible via SSH, using public-key authentication.

Inspired by Microsoft's Remote SSH Visual Studio Code extension, it allows you to develop in a Docker container with your preferred language.

Requirements

• Docker CE/EE 18.06+
• docker-compose 1.24+
• A ssh client (e.g. openssh on Linux)
• A ssh key (e.g. ssh-keygen on Linux)
• Visual Studio Code with Remote SSH extension (optional)

How to build images

There's a Makefile available in the repository, you can execute one of the following commands:

make cpp
make go
make java
make javascript
make php
make python
make rust

The above commands will build the desired environment(s).

By typing make, all the environments will be built automatically.

To force a rebuild, append the flag -B to the make command

How to run containers

You need to configure the docker-compose.yml file for the desired environment, by setting the path to your local public key (on Linux, stored in ~/.ssh/) that will be used with SSH.

After that, you can start the environments with the following commands:

make cpp-start
make go-start
make java-start
make javascript-start
make php-start
make python-start
make rust-start

The environments will be available at ports starting from 22221, listening on the localhost address.

The default user is builder, so if you want to connect to the docker environment, just type (e.g. the C++ environment):

ssh builder@localhost -p22221

Port Mapping

The environments expose the following ports:

Environment	Docker Host	Docker Container
C++	22221	22
Go	22222	22
Java	22223	22
PHP	22224	22
Python	22225	22
Rust	22226	22
Javascript	22227	22

How to stop containers

You can stop the containers by typing:

make cpp-stop
make go-stop
make java-stop
make javascript-stop
make php-stop
make python-stop
make rust-stop

And the environment will be stopped, without losing its content. To perform a cleanup, call directly the docker-compose.yml file you are interested in or issue the command make clean and all the running containers will be stopped.

Gotchas

• VSCodium, the stripped version of Visual Studio Code does not work since it requires closed source components only available in Code

• Every time you rebuild an image and start a desired environment, you have to cleanup your list of authorized keys in your SSH client (in Linux, usually the file ~/.ssh/known_hosts)

• If you want to save your work outside the container, you have three options:

  • use the git command to save your work to a remote repository (e.g. GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket)
  • use the docker cp command to copy files and/or folders on your host
  • modify the docker-compose.yml file(s) and mount a custom path as volume in the container. Be sure you have the required permissions to read/write files in the mounted volume.