/cs3203-clion-remote-fedora

Create a Fedora container for cross-platform development of CS3203 SPA project, while also benefitting from CLion's full remote mode.

Fedora Docker Container for CS3203 Cross-Platform SPA Development

This repository provides a Dockerfile to allow you to build (and tweak) a Fedora Linux Docker container for cross-platform development of CS3203's Static Program Analyzer.

The target environment for builds is Fedora 32.

This Docker container is also set up for remote toolchain integration with CLion.

Getting Started

  1. Ensure that you have Docker installed on your system.

  2. Build the Docker image using the Dockerfile with:

    docker build -t cs3203/fedora-dev-env -f Dockerfile.cs3203-fedora .

  3. Create and run the container (for the first time) using the built image with:

    • If you intend to simply use it as a target build environment (or you're developing in Visual Studio or others) 
      docker run -d --cap-add sys_ptrace --mount type=bind,source=<PathToCodeDirectory>,target=/home/user/cs3203  --name fedora-dev-env cs3203/fedora-dev-env
      • Note that for Linux or MacOS systems, the <PathToCodeDirectory> can use the $(pwd) subcommand for the current working directory as in: 
        ...,source="$(pwd)"/CS3203/Team06/Code06,...
        but for Windows systems, the <PathToCodeDirectory> should be an absolute path as in: 
        ...,source=c:\CS3203\Team06\Code06,...
    • If you intend to develop in CLion using the Full Remote Mode 
      docker run -d --cap-add sys_ptrace -p127.0.0.1:2222:22 --name fedora-dev-env cs3203/fedora-dev-env

    Note: It's also a good idea to remove [localhosts]:2222 if it exists in your system's SSH known_hosts file. The following command tries to find an entry and removes it if it exists:

    ssh-keygen -f "$HOME/.ssh/known_hosts" -R "[localhost]:2222"

  4. After you're done, stop the container with:

    docker stop fedora-dev-env

  5. Subsequently after the first run, start the stopped container with:

    docker start fedora-dev-env

To attach a terminal session to the container, you can do so with:

docker exec -it fedora-dev-env /bin/bash

This can also be done in the Docker Desktop application.

Using as a Target Build Environment in CLI

  1. Ensure that the fedora-dev-env container is running.
  2. Open the CLI for the container in the Docker Desktop application or start a new terminal session and run docker exec -it fedora-dev-env /bin/bash to attach to the container's CLI.
  3. Navigate to the target folder specified during docker run, i.e. cd /home/user/cs3203 and ensure that the source folder has been properly bind-mounted.
  4. Carry on build instructions as per the CS3203 Wiki guide here

Full Remote Mode with CLion

  1. Ensure that the fedora-dev-env container is running.

  2. In CLion, navigate to your project folder and open the top-level CMakeLists.txt using Open as Project

  3. In Preferences > Build, Execution, Deployment > Toolchain, add a new Remote Host and set the credentials to

    • Host: localhost
    • Port: 2222
    • User name: user
    • Authentication type: Password
    • Password: password

    SSH Configurations

    and click Test Connection to ensure that the connection to the Docker container works. Once done correctly, CLion should be able to detect the tools' versions and path on the Fedora container. Toolchain

  4. In Preferences > Build, Execution, Deployment > CMake, ensure that in the profile, CMake

    • Toolchain: Fedora toolchain made in step 3 (especially if the toolchain was not set to the default one)
    • Build directory: build (as per CS3203 SPA build instructions, but can be changed to your own preference)

  5. In Preferences > Build, Execution, Deployment > Deployment, ensure the following settings for the deployment server (create a new SFTP server if it doesn't exist)

    • Under Connection tab: Connection
      • Type: SFTP
      • SSH configuration: (same as toolchain)
      • Root path: preferably \ but can be set to your own preference
    • Under Mappings tab: Mappings
      • Local path: (current project path)
      • Deployment path: (specify a path for your project preferably somewhere in /home/user)
    • Under Excluded Paths tab: Excluded Paths
      • Local path pointing to the build directory specified in step 4
        • Note that this will show a ...<path>... is out of project warning. You can ignore this warning.

  6. Close the Preferences window by click on the OK button. CMake should automatically reload the project using these new settings. If it does not, go to File > Reload CMake Project.

You may encounter the following error in reloading the CMake project: Cannot resolve path: <build directory>
Cannot resolve path This is a bug that has been raised to the CLion developers as seen here. To work around this:

  • Go to Help > Find Actions and enter Registry
  • In the Registry window, uncheck the registry clion.remote.sync.text.files and close the window
  • Go to File > Invalidate Caches / Restart and select Invalidate and Restart
  • Once CLion restarts, CMake build should run automatically and the bug should be fixed
  1. Build configurations are now automatically added as seen in the top right of the window.

References