Run the devcontainer locally

See also

VS Code tutorial: Remote development in Containers

Prerequisites

Docker

Docker is required; the easiest way to get Docker is by downloading and installing Docker Desktop for Linux, Mac (including Apple Silicon!) and Windows.

VS Code

You will also need VS Code and the Remote - Containers extension installed.

Source code

Ensure you have a local copy of this template repository:

git clone https://github.com/compilerla/template-devcontainer

Or another repository you generated from this template.

Open the repo in VS Code

From the command line:

code /path/to/repository

Or from the VS Code UI:

File > Open Folder > /path/to/repository

Reopen in devcontainer

At this point, the VS Code UI should prompt you to reopen the folder in the devcontainer:

Rebuild and Reopen

To completely rebuild the devcontainer from scratch and reopen the VS Code window, attached to the running devcontainer:

1. Bring up the VS Code Command Palette with: Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P
2. Enter Remote-Containers to filter the list
3. Enter or select the Rebuild and Reopen in Container option

Reopen

To reopen VS Code attached to the most recently built and used devcontainer (the build is skipped if not needed):

1. Bring up the VS Code Command Palette with: Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P
2. Enter Remote-Containers to filter the list
3. Enter or select the Reopen in Container option

Close the devcontainer

From within the devcontainer, to close the connection and reopen VS Code on your local (host) machine:

1. Bring up the VS Code Command Palette with: Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P
2. Enter Remote-Containers to filter the list
3. Enter or select the Reopen Folder Locally option