Python remote development with Xcode and Docker containers

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This post is very simple, nothing fancy. I just wanted to add one more post to my blog 🙂

The scenario is: you have a docker container on which you are doing some python development and you want to use an IDE installed on your host machine. 

In my case the host machine is a MAC and I am using Xcode. I know that Xcode and python are not exactly friends, but still, I can use it for syntax highlighting. Better than nothing.

In any case, for anyone interested, the only thing necessary is to mount a host folder as a data volume on your container.

Here is how to do that

$ docker run -it -v <host folder>:<container folder> <docker image>

​For example,  I have a docker image called tensorflow/tutorials where I learn tensorflow

$ docker run -it -v /Users/me/Documents/My_Apps/TensorFlow/Code:/Code tensorflow

When I attach to the newly created docker container (test_container), I can go to shared folder and do any changes and they will be visible on the host computer

$ docker attach test_container
[test_container] cd /Code
[test_container /Code] touch test_file
[test_container /Code] CTRL-P CTRL-Q
$ cd ~/Documents/My_Apps/TensorFlow/Code
$ ls -a test_file
-rw-r--r--  1 me  staff  0 Jul  5 17:01 test_file

​I am not sure how one can mount a host volume to an existing container. What I would do is commit my container and then run the new image with the mount instruction. Here are the commands

$ docker run -it ubuntu:14.04 /bin/bash

​ This will create a new container based on the ubuntu:14.04 image, without any mount points.

After you have done some work on it and the time has come to mount a volume, commit the container

$ docker commit -m "Before mounting host volume" insane_varahamihira ubuntu:14.04.01

​ A new images has been created

$ docker images
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED      SIZE
ubuntu              14.04.01            c0fd900985b4        5 minutes ago       196.6 MB

​Now run a new container from that image, while mounting a host volume to it

$ docker run -it -v /Users/me/Documents/My_Apps/TensorFlow/Code/:/Code c0fd900985b4 /bin/bash

​Done.

The side effect of this is that you will now have two working container and you will most likely want to get rid of the one without the mount volume

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                  COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                       PORTS               NAMES
1b3a7bbaf38d        c0fd900985b4           "/bin/bash"         8 minutes ago       Exited (127) 1 seconds ago                       big_jennings
f7215b9cc415        ubuntu:14.04           "/bin/bash"         12 minutes ago      Exited (127) 2 minutes ago                       insane_varahamihira

$ docker rm insane_varahamihira

​ If one has a better solution, please share it in the comments.