This is a modified version of H4l's dev-container-docker-compose-volume-or-bind template for generating devcontainers that make use of docker-compose. License file has not been modified.

Original README:

Dev Container Example: Docker Compose with workspace in volume or bind mount

Summary

An example Dev Container configuration for a Docker Compose project with workspace code accessed from the local filesystem via a bind mount, or with the project code in a Docker container volume.

The project can be opened in Visual Studio Code via the command palette Remote-Containers: Clone Repository in Container Volume... or by opening a local checkout of the repository.

Supporting both container volume workspaces and bind mount workspaces in a single Docker Compose dev container configuration is not easy at present. Hopefully this example will become redundant in the near future if the Remote Containers plugin provides a way to consistently access workspace content from volumes and bind mounts in Docker Compose services.

Using this example

If this is your first time using a development container, please see getting started information on setting up Remote-Containers.
To open it from a container volume:
1. Start VS Code, press F1 and select Remote-Containers: Clone Repository in Container Volume... and enter this repository's URL
Or to open it from the local filesystem:
1. Clone this repository on your computer
2. Start VS Code and open this project folder.
3. Press F1 and run Remote-Containers: Reopen Folder in Container

To use it in your own project, copy the .devcontainer directory from this repository into your project and edit the devcontainer.json and docker-compose.yml as required. Make sure the .devcontainer/gen-docker-compose-workspace-env.sh script is marked executable (chmod +x ...).

The key parts are:

In devcontainer.json run the envar-generation script in initializeCommand:

"initializeCommand": ".devcontainer/gen-docker-compose-workspace-env.sh --container-workspace-folder '${containerWorkspaceFolder}' --local-workspace-folder '${localWorkspaceFolder}'"

In docker-compose.yml:

Access the workspace files in a service by defining the volumes entry:

volumes:
  - ${WORKSPACE_SOURCE:?}:${WORKSPACE_TARGET:?}

And define this top-level volume:

volumes:
  devcontainer-volume:
    name: ${WORKSPACE_CONTAINER_VOLUME_SOURCE:-not-used-in-bind-mount-workspace}
    external: ${WORKSPACE_IS_CONTAINER_VOLUME:?}

Compatibility

The Remote Containers plugin has changed its behaviour between updates in incompatible ways several times. Future updates could break this example again.
The example has not been tested with GitHub Codespaces as I've not got an account with access to it.

How it works

The devcontainer.json "initializeCommand" runs gen-docker-compose-workspace-env.sh which generates several environment variables in .devcontainer/.env which vary depending on whether the workspace is in a container volume or a local bind mount. .devcontainer/docker-compose.yml references these environment variables when defining its service volumes, which allows one Compose file to consistently handle bind mounts and volume workspaces.