Dev Container

This guide will help you set up a Dev Container or GitHub Codespace for working on your github-hosted, open source LabVIEW projects.

Requirements

• Non-commercial use only (i.e. working on open source or home/hobby projects)
  • Use on public github repositories only
  • You must have a LabVIEW Community Edition license
  • You must have a VIPM Community Edition license

How to create a development container

Simply copy devcontainer.json into a folder to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json in your github project, and then follow the steps below.

You have two primary choices for running the devcontainer:

1. in the browser on via GitHub Codespace (github hardware) or

2. locally as a devcontainer via docker

Option #1 GitHub Codespace (running on GitHub's servers)

• Requirements:

  • Web browser
  • An account with GitHub Codespace minutes -- THIS COSTS MONEY and will most likely result in fees/charges to your github account.
  • VSCode with GitHub Codespaces extension installed (if connecting from VSCode app running locally, rather than in the browser)

• Steps:

  • Open to your github project's homepage in the browser, and then press the . (period) key to open VSCode in the browser
  • click on the icon in the lower left and choose Continue Working in New Codespace and then choose the size of the codespace machine.

Option #2 Local Devcontainer (running on your own computer) on Docker

• Requirements:

  • Arch: Intel processor (Apple Silicon won't work)
  • OS: Linux or Windows + WSL
  • SW:
    • Docker (or containerd might work)
    • VSCode
    • Dev Containers extension for VSCode

• Steps:

  • Open the project in VSCode on your computer
  • Click on the icon in the lower left and choose Open in Dev Container

More Remote Options

If you know what you're doing, you can probably host your own vscode server with devcontainers running on that same hosted code server. That's beyond the scope of this guide :)