VSCode dev container settings

[TheDevelolper]

Hi there,

I'm trying to use vscode dev containers support for apple containers. I've enabled the experimental stuff and I can see attach to running container in the command palette however, when I open the solution it's prompting me to me to open the project in a dev container as I have a dev container json file.

When I try to run it, it's asking for docker.

I put this in my settings:

{
    "remote.autoForwardPortsSource": "hybrid",
    "dev.containers.experimentalAppleContainerSupport": true,
    "dev.containers.dockerPath": "container",
    "dev.containers.dockerComposePath": "container"
}

So I'm not sure how I'm supposed to run this for dev containers in vscode? I've seen a load of articles about it but nobody explains the vscode settings in any detail.

I get the error:

Command not found: 'container'. Check the license for details.

however I have confirmed that container works from the command line, even in vscode:

$ container
OVERVIEW: A container platform for macOS

USAGE: container [--debug] <subcommand>

OPTIONS:
  --debug                 Enable debug output [environment: CONTAINER_DEBUG]
  --version               Show the version.
  -h, --help              Show help information.

CONTAINER SUBCOMMANDS:
  create                  Create a new container
  delete, rm              Delete one or more containers
  exec                    Run a new command in a running container
  inspect                 Display information about one or more containers
  kill                    Kill or signal one or more running containers
  list, ls                List containers
  logs                    Fetch container logs
  run                     Run a container
  start                   Start a container
  stop                    Stop one or more running containers

IMAGE SUBCOMMANDS:
  build                   Build an image from a Dockerfile or Containerfile
  image, i                Manage images
  registry, r             Manage registry logins

VOLUME SUBCOMMANDS:
  volume, v               Manage container volumes

OTHER SUBCOMMANDS:
  builder                 Manage an image builder instance
  network, n              Manage container networks
  system, s               Manage system components

Any help would be appreciated.

[zachary-wang12]

Experiencing the same situation.

[BryanAPEX]

I'm interested in using this for dev containers too, did you ever get it working?

[jglogan]

I just tried it, seemed to work for me:

container create --name swift-ntp-dev --cpus 8 --memory 8g -d -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -w /workspace swift:6.2.3 sleep 3600000
container start swift-ntp-dev
code .

• In the settings, enable the experimental container setting.
• Run: Dev Containers: Attach to Running Apple Container...
• Select: swift-dev-ntp (running)
• Open: /workspace/
• Open a Swift file, install the Swift extension at the prompt, click OK to restart the LSP server
• Code away

[natevw]

When I try to run it, it's asking for docker.

For me it seemed that most of the UI and infra in the VS Code Remote containers extension is still oriented around Docker being in use and available. Any actual integration seems to be still missing from the UI, except that as @jglogan notes above there's a "Dev Containers: Attach to Running Apple Container..." available in the command palette.

I don't think this will help:

"dev.containers.dockerPath": "container",
"dev.containers.dockerComposePath": "container",

Even when putting the full path (via which container, on my machine was "/usr/local/bin/container") the UI still complains about Docker not running. I suspect either that the VS Code plugin uses the daemon engine directly via API rather than the CLI tool(s), but otoh I guess the existence of those settings implies it might also use the CLI tools too. Regardless I'd be surprised if the output of container commands is compatible enough with original docker output to be of much use.

All that to say, for me adding only the "dev.containers.experimentalAppleContainerSupport": true setting was enough to get it to "work" for me.

That's for a very limited definition of "work" and the Containers extension seems to still very much want a working install of either a Docker or Podman runtime backing the UI panel you'd normally use. But you can leave that whole panel broken and just ignore it; the "Attach to Running Apple Container" command seems to be the only working entrypoint anyway.

[jglogan]

@natevw You’re not using a devcontainer.json, right?

The experimental “attach to container” feature bypasses the devcontainer.json handling that launches a container or containers (if using the compose feature), building containers as needed. Instead, you bring a preconfigured container, already running, and it execs processes to install and run the VS Code server, and then connects your code app as a client.

Regarding how the real “open in a devcontainer” UX works, the remote dev extension (javascript) invokes functions from https://github.com/devcontainers/cli to create your container from a devcontainer.json. You can install the CLI and do all the same setup from your shell. It calls out to the docker CLI and as shown above you can change the command name, but whatever you change it to needs to implement a fair amount of the CLI surface area. View your devcontainer setup logs to get an idea. The CLI code has some special handling for podman built in but no provider abstraction that would allow you to plumb in non-docker CLIs.

[natevw]

ah, no. I was just trying to browse directly into the container from an empty (or some other existing already-open) project window. in that case and with Docker not installed on my Macbook I see:

and generally can't see any running container lists or anything. But the palette command works and opens a remote window and installs the VS Code server, etc. etc. like I'm used to when remoting to VMs.

[jglogan]

Cool…if you’d found some way to generate a devcontainer from a devcontainer.json w/o the docker or podman CLI that’d be surprising.

[kreemer]

I'm working on a client which builds devcontainers from devcontainer.json which supports building it with the container (without docker). It doesn't use the devcontainer-cli but implements the spec directly.

It is still very early in the development and you would have to install vscode-server in the container directly, but it is possible.

As I do not know the community guidelines, I won't be pasting links, but you can find it on my github page.