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https://github.com/gma/devcon

Use devcontainers without VS Code
https://github.com/gma/devcon

devcontainer devcontainers neovim

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Use devcontainers without VS Code

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README 

        
devcon

======



This is a small tool that extends the functionality of the [devcontainers/cli]

tool.



Why might you want to use it, rather than just using `devcontainer` directly?



If using the `devcontainer` command to build and launch a container that has

access to my SSH keys, Git config, and my standard dotfiles, I would need all

these options:



```sh

devcontainer \

    --workspace-folder . \

    --mount "type=bind,source=$HOME/.gitconfig,target=/home/vscode/.gitconfig" \

    --mount "type=bind,source=$HOME/.ssh,target=/home/vscode/.ssh" \

    --mount "type-bind,source=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK,target=/tmp/.ssh-auth.sock" \

    --remote-env SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/.ssh-auth.sock \

    --dotfiles-repository https://github.com/gma/dotfiles.git \

    up

```



Yeah, that's not happening.



We need a way to automate those settings. `devcon` will take care of preparing

all those options for you, so you can just type:



```sh

devcon up

```



In addition to setting these common switches, you can pass other options to

`devcon` and it will pass them through to `devcontainer`.



## Supported commands



`devcon` supports all the commands that `devcontainer` supports.



Most `devcontainer` commands are called directly, while `build`, `exec`, and

`up` are called with some default options.



These extra options will:



- Make your `~/.gitconfig` file available within the container

- Make your host computer's ssh-agent available within the container (so you

  can login to stuff with your SSH keys)

- Install your dotfiles within the container (if you set `DEVCON_DOTFILES` —

  see below)

- Install a recent version of Neovim from source, inside the container (you can

  override this behaviour if you like — see below)



In addition, it adds two new commands:



- `devcon down` will stop your containers, by running `docker compose down`

- `devcon login` will run `docker exec` to launch a shell inside the container



To put that another way, to launch, use, and then shut down my development

environment I can just type this:



```sh

devcon up

devcon login  # equivalent to `devcon exec /bin/bash`

devcon down

```



Environment Variables

---------------------



You can control the behaviour of `devcon` by setting a few environment

variables.



### DEVCON_APT_PACKAGES



Default: `file`



Set this variable to a comma-separated list of Debian packages that you'd like

to be installed within your container.



They'll be pulled in at build time via the [apt-packages] feature:



```json

{

    "ghcr.io/rocker-org/devcontainer-features/apt-packages:1": {

        "packages": "..."

    }

}

```



Whatever you set `DEVCON_APT_PACKAGES` to will replace the three dots in the

above JSON.



For example, I have this in my `.bashrc` file:



```sh

export DEVCON_APT_PACKAGES="exuberant-ctags file shellcheck"

```



**NOTE:** If you set a value for `DEVCON_FEATURES` then `DEVCON_APT_PACKAGES`

will be ignored. You can, however, still include the config for the

[apt-packages] feature in your `DEVCON_FEATURES` variable.



### DEVCON_DOTFILES



Default: Unset



Can be set to the URL of a Git repository that contains your dotfiles. It will

be passed to the `--dotfiles-repository` argument of `devcontainer up` . I set

this in my host computer's `~/.bashrc`, so that every time I build a new

devcontainer my personal settings are installed within the container.



### DEVCON_FEATURES



Default: `"ghcr.io/duduribeiro/devcontainer-features/neovim:1": {}`



Can be set to a snippet of JSON that specifies one or [devcontainer features]

that you'd like to be used when building the container.



By default it's set to a single feature that will compile Neovim from source.



**NOTE:** If you set this, and you're also using `DEVCON_APT_PACKAGES`, you'll

need to manually include the [apt-packages] feature in `DEVCON_FEATURES`, as

`DEVCON_APT_PACKAGES` will be ignored.



### DEVCON_USER



Default: `vscode`



If your container runs as a different you'll probably want to update this. It's

used to determine the user's home directory inside the container.



[devcontainers/cli]: https://github.com/devcontainers/cli

[devcontainer feature]: https://containers.dev/features

[devcontainer features]: https://containers.dev/features

[apt-packages]: https://github.com/rocker-org/devcontainer-features/tree/main/src/apt-packages