Feature/codespaces setup #1

jcardozo-eth · 2024-09-18T13:48:51Z

Overview

This pull request adds funtionality to enhance the Spring Boot Devbox Isolated Environment Demo, utilizing GitHub Codespaces. Devcontainer is configured to serve solely as an IDE, enhancing accessibility and portability for cloud-native development, without taking over dependency management which remains efficiently handled by Devbox. This setup demonstrates how Devbox and development containers can work together seamlessly, showcasing the project in a cloud-enabled environment or also running locally. The integration highlights development containers role in facilitating development online or locally using VS Code, while Devbox continues to manage all dependencies, ensuring that the environment remains robust and consistent.

Purpose and Scope of Changes

Clarification on Roles: The isolated shell environment is still managed by Devbox, while Devcontainer provides the option to develop and run the project in the cloud.
Demonstration of Hybrid Approach: Showcases the integration potential between Devbox and Codespaces, demonstrating a hybrid setup that supports consistent and efficient workflows across local and cloud environments.
Ephemeral URLs: Makes use of GitHub's ephemeral URLs, which provide temporary access to forwarded ports of the web server running on Codespaces.

Key Changes

Custom Dockerfile:
- Base and Essential Tools: Built on Ubuntu 24.04, with essential tools like curl and ca-certificates installed, ensuring a minimal footprint by managing package installations and cleanups effectively.
- Nix and Devbox Installation: Installs the Nix Package Manager (which is required by Devbox) in the container using Determinate Nix Installer and installs Devbox using nix.
Devcontainer Configuration (devcontainer.json):
- Facilitation of Cloud-Native Development: Configures GitHub Codespaces to complement Devbox, without duplicating its functionality. Focuses on providing an optimized development environment in the cloud.
- Port Configuration: Forwards port 8080, allowing outside access to the web server.
- VS Code Integration: Ensures that the same devcontainer.json setup can be used to configure a consistent development environment locally within Visual Studio Code.
Static HTML Landing Page (index.html):
- Introduces a new HTML page at the root URL, offering essential information, a welcome message, a link to the /greeting endpoint for API testing, and a reference to the GitHub repository for detailed project insights.
README.md Updates:
- Enhanced the README.md to include detailed instructions for using GitHub Codespaces, starting the web server, and navigating the project.

Identified Issues

Initialization Delays: Noted longer-than-ideal initialization times for the Devbox environment setup ("devbox compute environment...").

Next Steps

Optimize Startup Times: Aim to enhance the startup and initialization speeds for the Devbox setup within Codespaces.
Security Enhancements: Continuously assess and improve security measures, particularly regarding operations under the root user within the container.

Documentation Enhancements

Comprehensive README.md: Revised to provide clear instructions to guide new users through using Codespaces and understanding the integration with Devbox, making the initial setup and subsequent development tasks straightforward and intuitive.

Set up the development environment for the using GitHub Codespaces. This includes defining a devcontainer.json with a pre-configured universal image and necessary VS Code extensions to streamline development. The configuration automatically forwards port 8080 and sets the post-create command to start the Spring Boot server using Maven.

Devbox shell, remove extensions Removing extensions. Changed post-create command to install Devbox, clone the git repo, change repo, enter devbox shell

This Dockerfile configures a Devbox-based development environment. It includes commands to set up necessary directories, copy configuration files, install packages, and clone the repository. Finally, it runs the Spring Boot application using Maven.

Switch from a pre-built image to building from a Dockerfile. This change allows for more customization and better alignment with project-specific dependencies. Also, update the `remoteUser` to use a dynamic environment variable.

Relocated the Dockerfile to the .devcontainer directory.

Replaces the single CMD instruction with two separate commands: one to open the devbox shell and another to run the Spring Boot application server. This enhances modularity and ensures clean execution of each step.

Changed the Dockerfile path to point to root directory to ensure the correct Dockerfile is used during the build process.

Added the DEVBOX_USER environment variable to the Dockerfile to specify the default user as 'devbox-user'. This change ensures consistency and proper configuration for user-specific operations in the container.

Create a new 'devbox-user' and set up appropriate directory permissions.

Changed the remoteUser field from a variable to a hardcoded string to ensure consistency across different development environments.

Removed unnecessary user creation and environment variable settings to reduce complexity. Preserved essential commands to maintain functionality and ensure the proper setup of the working directory and package installations. CMD at the end of the script is deleted and will be moved to devcontainer.json.

Changed the remote user from 'devbox-user' to 'devbox'. Added a post-start command to initialize the Devbox environment and run the Spring Boot application using Maven.

This commit introduces two new aliases to the devbox.json file: "start" and "stop". These scripts utilize Maven commands to manage the spring-boot application lifecycle, allowing developers to easily start and stop the application.

… run Simplify the post-start command by replacing the existing bash script with `devbox run start`.

Updated the postCreateCommand in devcontainer.json to trigger mvn compile within the isolated environment.

- Changed the base image from Devbox to Ubuntu 24.04 - Install necessary tools (curl, ca-certificates) for a minimal setup. - Use Determinate Systems Nix installer for secure and reliable Nix installation. - Set up PATH to include Nix binaries. - Install Devbox using Nix

Created a non-root user and group for better security. Updated the Dockerfile to switch to this user after installation.

Redefined the installation by setting DEBIAN_FRONTEND to noninteractive. https://manpages.debian.org/testing/debconf-doc/debconf.7.en.html#DEBIAN_FRONTEND

Introduce a new endpoint that redirects requests from the root URL to the /greeting endpoint using RedirectView. This ensures users are automatically taken to the greeting page when accessing the root URL.

This change simplifies the Dockerfile by removing the creation of a non-root user and the subsequent user switch. This adjustment ensures that the focus remains on installing Devbox using Nix.

Add EXPOSE directive in the Dockerfile to allow the container to handle requests on port 8080. This change supports the functionality of the web server running inside the container.

Deleted the method that redirected from root endpoint to the greeting endpoint. Instead, visitors should see a landing page when accessing the base URL.

Removing this command, because the web server started successfully but then exited with 0 after completion and therefore got shut down. We'll let users start the server by themselves.

Enhance README.md with detailed steps for running the project using GitHub Codespaces. Users now have an alternative option to develop and run the application directly from a cloud-based development environment.

jcardozo added 30 commits September 15, 2024 23:15

Update devcontainer name

46ee8b8

Update devcontainer config for

1f234df

Devbox shell, remove extensions Removing extensions. Changed post-create command to install Devbox, clone the git repo, change repo, enter devbox shell

Update devcontainer to use Dockerfile for image build

c452148

Switch from a pre-built image to building from a Dockerfile. This change allows for more customization and better alignment with project-specific dependencies. Also, update the `remoteUser` to use a dynamic environment variable.

Move Dockerfile to .devcontainer directory

60ea0a5

Relocated the Dockerfile to the .devcontainer directory.

Remove repository clone from Dockerfile

2f1e970

Refactor Dockerfile to separate devbox shell cmd and application tart

f4a8c5d

Replaces the single CMD instruction with two separate commands: one to open the devbox shell and another to run the Spring Boot application server. This enhances modularity and ensures clean execution of each step.

Fix CMD command, combine devbox shell and mvn spring-boot:run

6fd4791

Update Dockerfile path in devcontainer.json

caebacc

Changed the Dockerfile path to point to root directory to ensure the correct Dockerfile is used during the build process.

Set environment variable for Devbox user

0ed03d7

Added the DEVBOX_USER environment variable to the Dockerfile to specify the default user as 'devbox-user'. This change ensures consistency and proper configuration for user-specific operations in the container.

Add 'devbox-user' to Dockerfile

87771c5

Create a new 'devbox-user' and set up appropriate directory permissions.

Update remoteUser in devcontainer.json, use static value

82ea92f

Changed the remoteUser field from a variable to a hardcoded string to ensure consistency across different development environments.

Use root account as initial step

b43c24e

Update devcontainer config - rename remote user and add post-start cmd

67a1089

Changed the remote user from 'devbox-user' to 'devbox'. Added a post-start command to initialize the Devbox environment and run the Spring Boot application using Maven.

Remove terminal settings from devcontainer configuration

524132a

Update post-start command in devcontainer configuration to use devbox…

dbbe4cf

… run Simplify the post-start command by replacing the existing bash script with `devbox run start`.

Add alias to run mvn compile

5c7e30f

Add postCreateCommand to compile sources in devbox shell

edcaad6

Updated the postCreateCommand in devcontainer.json to trigger mvn compile within the isolated environment.

Add non-root user for Devbox

87ec065

Created a non-root user and group for better security. Updated the Dockerfile to switch to this user after installation.

Update Dockerfile to improve installation process

2115a22

Redefined the installation by setting DEBIAN_FRONTEND to noninteractive. https://manpages.debian.org/testing/debconf-doc/debconf.7.en.html#DEBIAN_FRONTEND

Change remote user to root in devcontainer.json

bf675a2

Add redirect from root to /greeting

0e3cd35

Introduce a new endpoint that redirects requests from the root URL to the /greeting endpoint using RedirectView. This ensures users are automatically taken to the greeting page when accessing the root URL.

Simplify Dockerfile by removing non-root user setup

215c3be

This change simplifies the Dockerfile by removing the creation of a non-root user and the subsequent user switch. This adjustment ensures that the focus remains on installing Devbox using Nix.

Expose port 8080 in Dockerfile

ddcd4bf

Add EXPOSE directive in the Dockerfile to allow the container to handle requests on port 8080. This change supports the functionality of the web server running inside the container.

Add static landing page

a794244

Remove root redirect method

ee36c9e

Deleted the method that redirected from root endpoint to the greeting endpoint. Instead, visitors should see a landing page when accessing the base URL.

jcardozo added 2 commits September 17, 2024 12:52

Remove postStartCommand

030bcdc

Removing this command, because the web server started successfully but then exited with 0 after completion and therefore got shut down. We'll let users start the server by themselves.

Add instructions for running project via GitHub Codespaces

a81a931

Enhance README.md with detailed steps for running the project using GitHub Codespaces. Users now have an alternative option to develop and run the application directly from a cloud-based development environment.

jcardozo-eth self-assigned this Sep 18, 2024

jcardozo-eth merged commit d81f159 into master Sep 18, 2024
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Feature/codespaces setup #1

Feature/codespaces setup #1

jcardozo-eth commented Sep 18, 2024 •

edited

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Feature/codespaces setup #1

Feature/codespaces setup #1

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jcardozo-eth commented Sep 18, 2024 • edited Loading

Overview

Purpose and Scope of Changes

Key Changes

Identified Issues

Next Steps

Documentation Enhancements

jcardozo-eth commented Sep 18, 2024 •

edited

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