container-run

An opinionated wrapper for running commands in containers. container-run automates the mechanics of associating directories with container images and working directories to run commands within those containers.

How to use container-run

The container-run binary will attempt to find a container engine (podman then docker) in the path, and then run any arguments after the command (eg container-run /bin/run --this=stuff --inside=container) inside a container that will have the current directory mounted inside with read/write privileges. In this manner a container environment can be used to read and write files on the host filesystem, while a configuration file organizes common container options.

Install

Install from crates.io using cargo.

1. cargo install container-run

Create a configuration file

Create a file in one of three locations:

• ./.container-run.conf
• ~/.container-run.conf
• ~/.config/container-run/container-run.conf

{
    "basenames": {
        "myproject": {"profile": "golang-github"}
    },
    "profiles": {
        "golang-github": {
            "image": "docker.io/library/golang:1.16",
            "mountpoint": "/go/src/github.com/{basename}"
        }
    }
}

See the container-run.conf documentation for more detailed information.

Invoke container-run

Most frequently, container-run is used to execute software development oriented commands within the scope of a container that has been constructed to provide all the necessary build tools.

Change directory to the path you would like to execute commands within a container, and execute the commands by prefixing them with container-run (eg $ container-run make test build).

Example usage

With a working directory of /home/me/myproject, and the configuration file from the configuration file section, running the command container-run make test will do the following:

• determine the container engine to use (podman or docker)
• start running a container that:
  • uses the image docker.io/library/golang:1.16
  • mounts the host directory /home/me/myproject/ into the container as /go/src/github.com/myproject
  • sets the working directory in the container to /go/src/github.com/myproject
  • executes the command make test
• passes execution to the container engine process, this will return all output and status to the shell from which it ran

Enable debug logs

To enable debug log printing to the terminal, and a local container-run.log file, set the environment variable CONTAINER_RUN_VERBOSITY=debug in your shell before executing.