What is Docker?

Docker is a tool designed to make it easier to create, deploy, and run applications by using containers. Containers allow a developer to package up an application with all of the parts it needs, such as libraries and other dependencies, and ship it all out as one package. By doing so, thanks to the container, the developer can rest assured that the application will run on any other Linux machine regardless of any customized settings that machine might have that could differ from the machine used for writing and testing the code.

In a way, Docker is a bit like a virtual machine. But unlike a virtual machine, rather than creating a whole virtual operating system, Docker allows applications to use the same Linux kernel as the system that they’re running on and only requires applications be shipped with things not already running on the host computer. This gives a significant performance boost and reduces the size of the application.

Cited from opensource.com.

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What is a Docker Image and how is it different from a container?

An image is an immutable file which contains required binaries and libraries needed to make a container and a running instance of an image is called a container. Images are composed of layers of other images. Images are created when we run the build command of Docker and containers are formed from these images when we use the run command of Docker. There can be many containers for the same image.

For more information about Docker see the official documentation.

Installing Docker

Docker installation guide for various operating systems can be found in the official Docker installation instructions.

Note

Docker images are usually very large. Downloading or pushing them over low bandwidth connections can be very slow.

coala as a Docker Image

We provide a coala/base docker image for your convenience, that has dependencies for most official bears already installed.

You can use the coala/base docker image to perform static code analysis on your code in the working directory, like this:

docker run -v=$(pwd):/app --workdir=/app coala/base coala --ci

See also

See also https://hub.docker.com/r/coala/base/.

Note

The coala Docker image does not support Python 2 analysis.

You can add coala as alias for docker image, like this:

alias coala="docker run -ti -v $(pwd):/app --workdir=/app coala/base coala"

coala on GitLab CI

You can use the coala/base docker image to perform static code analysis on your code with a .gitlab-ci.yml, like this:

check_code:
  image: coala/base
  script:
  - pip install -r requirements.txt
  - coala --ci

Note

For more information about GitLab CI configuration, consult the official documentation.

Troubleshooting GitLab CI

You might experience DNS related difficulties with a private GitLab CI setup. The coala container might not be able to clone the repository if the GitLab server name is not resolvable.

When this is the case, the most straightforward workaround is to add a configuration line inside the config.toml configuration file for the gitlab-ci-multi-runner runner:

extra_hosts = ["my-gitlab.example.com:192.168.0.100"]

Please be aware that the most generic dns setting listed in the gitlab-ci-multi-runner documentation has been recently added and at the time of this writing is not available in official builds.

coala on Travis CI

You can use the coala/base docker image to perform static code analysis on your code with a .travis.yml, like this:

language: generic
services: docker
script: docker run -v=$(pwd):/app --workdir=/app coala/base coala --ci

Note

For more information about Travis CI configuration, consult the official documentation.

coala on Circle CI

You can use the coala/base docker image to perform static code analysis on your code with a circle.yml, like this:

machine:
  services:
    - docker

test:
  override:
    - docker run -v=$(pwd):/app --workdir=/app coala/base coala --ci

Note

For more information about Circle CI configuration, consult the official documentation.