docker-win-remote-dev-on-macos

Set up a Windows Docker container with Openssh, Git, Microsoft Visual Studio BuildTools, and optionally Python (MiniConda), on macOS host. One use case can be to develop Windows applications remotely from Visual Studio Code in a macOS host.

Here are the installation steps:

1. Install VirtualBox and Vagrant
2. Got to the root folder of the cloned docker-win-remote-dev-on-macos repository (this repository)
3. Fetch the Windows Docker Machine repository: git submodule update --init --recursive
4. Run the script that will start the Vagrant Windows machine, build and run the Windows docker container: start.sh <build-tools-version> <python-version> <path-to-the-macos-bound-folder> <build-tools-version> must be either 16 or 17, <python-version> must be one of null, 37, 38 or 39, and <path-to-the-macos-bound-folder> must be prepended with C:. Example: start.sh "16" "38" "C:/tmp/win-dev-home"

The macOS bound folder, e.g. /tmp/win-dev-home in the example above, is bound in your Windows Docker machine to the C:\Users\DevUser\Work folder.

Warning: the conda commands won't work in the Microsoft Visual Studio's development shell that the Docker's container logs you in, so you will first need to exit the devopment shell before issuing conda commands like creating environment or installing packages. We recommend that you create a conda environment in the C:\Users\DevUser\Work folder that is bound to your macOS bound folder (e.g. /tmp/win-dev-home) so that it will persist after you exit your Windows development container. You can achieve this by issuing the following command: conda create -y -p C:\Users\DevUser\Work\MyCondaEnv\.

From there, you can either directly invoke MSBuild commands from the shell which has been started by the docker container, or you can connect by SSH to the Windows machine as user DevUser with password Passw0rd.

• To connect in a new macos terminal, invoke the following shell command: ssh -p 2222 DevUser@$(docker context inspect 2019-box | jq -r '.[0].Endpoints.docker.Host | .[6:] | .[:-5]')
• To use the Remote Explorer extension of Visual Studio Code (so you can edit and compile your Windows machine's code directly within your macos' Visual Studio Code editor), follow these steps:
  • You need first to get the IP address of your Windows machine by issuing the following shell command: echo $(docker context inspect 2019-box | jq -r '.[0].Endpoints.docker.Host | .[6:] | .[:-5]').
  • Then, copy the resulting IP address and add the following entry in your ~/.ssh/config file, after which your buildtools2019-py38 Windows machine (if you called the start.sh script with build tools version 16 - thus year 2019 - and python version 38) will be accessible from the VSCode's Remote Explorer:

Host buildtools2019-py38
  HostName <your-Windows-machine-IP>
  User DevUser
  Port 2222

Once you have finished with your Docker Windows BuildTools image, you can call the stop.sh <build-tools-version> <python-version> script to stop the Docker image and the Vagrant Windows machine.