Inroduction

• The devcontainer.json file is a central configuration file used in Devcontainers
• It plays a crucial role in defining the development environment and specifying various settings for the isolated development environment
• It defines the development environment, specifying the base container image, required tools, extensions, and settings for the development environment
• This file can be shared across the development team to ensure consistency
• This file is typically placed in the root directory of the project and
• devcontainer.json is used to set up the development environment automatically

Note: A tool supporting the dev container specification is required to build a development container.

Explanation

devcontainer.json

{
    "name": "Node.js & TypeScript",

    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/typescript-node",

	"features": {
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/azure-cli:1": {},
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/powershell:1": {}
	},
	

    "customizations": {
        "vscode": {
            "settings": {
                "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "bash"
            },
            "extensions": [
                "oderwat.indent-rainbow"
            ]
        }
    }
	

    // "forwardPorts": [],
	

    // "postCreateCommand": "yarn install",
	
}

• name: A name for the dev container displayed in the UI
• image:
  • Required when using an image is used to create the dev container
  • Name of an image in a container registry i.e. DockerHub, GitHub Container Registry (ghcr), Azure Container Registry
• features: An object of Dev Container Feature IDs and related options to be added into your primary container
• customizations: Product specific properties, defined in supporting tools

Links

• General devcontainer.json properties: https://containers.dev/implementors/json_reference/#general-properties
• Image or Dockerfile specific properties: https://containers.dev/implementors/json_reference/#image-specific
• Docker Compose specific properties: https://containers.dev/implementors/json_reference/#compose-specific
• Supporting tools and services: https://containers.dev/supporting
• Lifecycle scripts: https://containers.dev/implementors/json_reference/#lifecycle-scripts
• Port attributes: https://containers.dev/implementors/json_reference/#port-attributes
• Instead of image, use a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file: https://containers.dev/guide/dockerfile