[Notice] Frequently asked questions

[bamurtaugh]

Dev container specification FAQ

1. Is there support for port forwarding? Can it be contributed?

The specification includes port attributes, but the reference implementation (dev container CLI) does not include port forwarding support. There is an open issue where we’ll track adding port forwarding to the reference implementation: devcontainers/cli#22.

2. Is there support for provisioning VS Code Server in the dev container?

There is not currently support for provisioning the server.

3. How do “Features” relate to the spec – are they part of the spec? Are they supported by the dev container CLI?

Dev container features provide a smooth path for customizing your container definitions. A feature is a script to customize your dev container configuration, such as installing Git or the Azure CLI.

Features provided by the specification are in https://github.com/devcontainers/features. Features are supported by the CLI.

There is an in-flight PR to define features in the spec: #27.

You may also review an example template repo for configuring a feature in this template repo.

4. What is the governance model for the spec?

We have information on how to contribute to the dev container CLI and the overall spec.

5. Where can I provide feedback or learn more about the spec?

Please feel free to open an issue in this repo or other repos in the devcontainers org. We've also enabled GitHub discussions in this repo, which is an excellent forum to interact with our development team and the community.

[MunsMan]

Should there be support for the VS Code Server? I get why VS Code, but shouldn't the support be more generic? This way, even more Editors/IDEs can adapt this workflow, which lead to a wider adoption of devcontainers.

[bamurtaugh]

Hi, thanks for the feedback!

We have issues tracking support for dev containers over tunnels:

• Support connecting to docker containers over tunnels microsoft/vscode-remote-release#7705
• Let us install VS Code Server from an offline media when connecting to a remote container microsoft/vscode-remote-release#7571

so it's certainly on our radar. Let me know if you had any other questions or feedback, or if your request is different than the linked issues.

[TateGunning]

Observing yourself and @samruddhikhandale teach us this process has been fun. Thank you for allowing a learn and for adding read me color and more order as needed and greatly appreciated. The VS seems cool I am also curious about the spec proposals in container but with respect to the VS remote implantation. Offline. Is the tunnel a VS control, a user VPN on machine, or separate funnel altogether? A very interesting process nonetheless thanks.