JetBrains CodeCanvas
 
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  1. User Guide
  2. Configure Dev Environments
  3. Create Template
  4. Container Image

Container Image

Last modified: 02 December 2024

Dev environments in CodeCanvas run in Docker containers. The toolchains, runtimes, and other software required for development are defined in a Docker image. When creating a template, you can either use a default image provided by CodeCanvas or specify a custom one.

note

Known issue

When creating a dev environment, CodeCanvas mounts directories for user data, including /root, to store IDE indexes and data generated by user scripts. On the first environment start, CodeCanvas replaces /root with an empty directory (as no prior data exists). This behavior overwrites any data added to /root during the Docker image build stage (e.g., .bashrc or app configurations). As a result, customizations or data defined in the Dockerfile and stored in /root are lost in the dev environment. To avoid this, add customizations like .bashrc in a lifecycle or warm-up script.

Default Docker image

If you don't specify a Docker image, CodeCanvas will use the default one. The default image is based on Ubuntu OS and includes Git, curl, Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, Google Cloud support, Open JDK, Python, PHP, .NET SDK, Ruby, Go, Node.js, npm, yarn, and other tools.

The default image uses the root user. To run the container as a non-root user, you need to create a custom image.

You can find the default image in the public JetBrains Docker registry: public.jetbrains.space/p/codecanvas/packages/container/releases/dev-container-default

Use custom Docker image

Image requirements

  • OS: any Linux distribution that includes GLIBC 2.27 or later. The OS must maintain compliance with the FHS (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard). For example, CentOS 7+, Debian 9+, Ubuntu 20.04+.

  • Tools: Git, OpenSSH, util-linux, Docker (if you need Docker for your project).

The minimal recommended Dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:latest

# Install necessary tools
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
	openssh-server \
	util-linux \
	git \
	docker.io

To specify the URL of your custom image, use the Advanced | Dev container image section of a dev environment template.

Container image

You can use any image from any private or public registry, including Docker Hub, GitHub Container Registry, and others.

  • Docker Hub

    If you host your image on Docker Hub, you can specify only the image name. For example, mycompany/myimage:latest

  • Other registries

    If you use a registry different from Docker Hub, specify the full URL of the image. For example, registry.example.com/mycompany/myimage:latest

Private registries

If your registry requires authentication, add a connection to this registry in the namespace settings.

To connect a Docker registry

  1. Find the namespace.

  2. In the sidebar namespace menu, click Settings, then select Docker Registry Connections.

  3. Click New connection and specify connection settings:

    • Key – a unique connection name that you will use to reference this connection in jobs, e.g., docker_hub or some_registry

    • Docker registry – a hostname of the remote Docker registry. For Docker Hub, it's index.docker.io

    • Authentication – the type of authentication to use.

      • Username/Password – specify the Username and Password (token) for the registry.

      • Use credential helper – use this option for authentication with a credential helper.

  4. Click Save.

Run dev environment under non-root user

Due to security reasons, you might want to run a dev environment under a non-root user. To do this, you need to use a custom Docker image with a non-root user specified in the Dockerfile. If your project requires some tools to be installed with apt-get, you should install them before switching to the non-root user.

Here is an example of a Dockerfile that creates an image with a non-root user:

FROM ubuntu:latest

# Install necessary tools
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
	openssh-server \
	util-linux \
	git

# Create a group and a non-root user
RUN groupadd -g 1001 mygroup && \
	useradd -m -u 1001 -g mygroup myuser

# Switch to the non-root user
USER myuser

Note that if your project requires using Docker in a dev environment, you need to install Docker in the rootless mode via the Dockerfile and then run the Docker daemon in a lifecycle script. . Learn more about running Docker in the rootless mode in the official Docker documentation.