/dockerauto

Automation for Docker images

Primary LanguagePythonGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

image

Automation, notes and management for Docker images

Introduction

This tool is a python wrapper around Docker to help solve some of the annoyances of managing lots of images for running tools and services.

It provides a way to install and build images from a variety of sources, to stores notes on tool syntax, to save a base command for each tool (so you don't have to remember all the volumes and ports you need to map), and allows you to update or remove images singly or in bulk.

Prerequisites

dockerauto is written to be used on a Linux machine, but is customised to run also on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) - versions 1 or 2.
It requires the following to be installed:

  • Python3
  • Git
  • Docker

On an apt-based system these can be installed be simply running:
sudo apt install python3.10 git docker.io -y

Also set your user to be able to run docker without sudo: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Windows installation

For Windows you will need the WSL components to be set up and a working WSL distrobution installed.
This is a task I leave up to the reader, however on most modern systems this is simply a case of running the following:

  • wsl --install (then reboot if necessary)
  • wsl --install -d ubuntu (for example)

To install dependencies run:
sudo apt install python3.10 git -y

Then download and install Docker Desktop for Windows.
Reboot your system again and you should be good to go.

Installation

To install simply git clone this repo and then run the dockerauto install command.

git clone https://github.com/ticarpi/dockerauto
cd dockerauto/
python3 ./dockerauto.py install

As part of the installation dockerauto will:

  • add dockerauto command to your $PATH, so it can be run from anywhere on your system (requires sudo)
  • chmod the binary to make it executable
  • create a base directory in your $HOME path (~/.dockerauto/)
  • copy a config file to the base directory

Configuration files

When you install dockerauto it will set the default 'example' config file, with a few suggested images. Optionally you can specify a different file, either from a URL or locally on your filesystem.
Some additional configs are included with dockerauto (named [technology type].dockerlist.json).
Or alternatively you can modify an example list manually.

To import a config run:
dockerauto install -c [path/URL to the file]

Running dockerauto

Once installed you can run:
dockerauto [mode] [OPTIONS]

The modes are:

Mode Function
list List all dockerauto items in the configfile
info [dockeritem] Show the command, metadata and notes about the specified dockerauto item
run [dockeritem] [arguments] Run a docker container for the specified dockerauto item and provided arguments
update [dockeritem/ALL] Pull a fresh DockerHub image, Git clone, download, or build a new image based on the configfile info
shell [dockeritem] Run a basic shell within the container for troubleshooting, identifying file paths, or other manual tasks
unload [dockeritem/ALL] Remove the docker image for the specified dockerauto item (for disk management, and purging broken images)
add [dockeritem] [-d/-dc FILE] Add a new entry in the configfile for a tool - guided
remove [dockeritem/ALL] Remove an entry in the configfile for the specified tool
install [-c CONFIGFILE] Initial setup, and to add alternative configfiles
export Export the configfile to the current directory

Example usage

LIST:
dockerauto list

INFO with arguments:
dockerauto info myapp

RUN with arguments:
dockerauto run myapp '-u https://example.com --title "text with spaces" -o /tmp/examplereport.txt'

UPDATE:
dockerauto update myapp

SHELL:
dockerauto shell myapp

UNLOAD:
dockerauto unload myapp

ADD with arguments:
dockerauto add newapp -d Dockerfile

REMOVE:
dockerauto remove newapp

INSTALL (local configfile):
dockerauto install -c CONFIGFILE

INSTALL (online configfile):
dockerauto install -c https://gist.github.com/ticarpi/CONFIGFILE

EXPORT:
dockerauto export

How to run from a specific directory in Windows?

If using Windows you can:

  • Open a directory in Explorer
  • Click into any open space in the window
  • Hit Ctrl+Shift, Right-Click to get the Advanced context menu.
  • Choose Open Linux shell here

From here you can install and run dockerauto

Quirks

If you want to run a container and call its Help function you may get a conflict with dockerauto's Help function.
To avoid this add a space before the help option argument:
dockerauto run myapp ' -h'