Migrate Docker build from GitHub to VS Code

Question

I'm working on a project that has a build set up in GitHub Actions using Docker. I want to set up the same build on my local machine using VS Code. I created the .devcontainer directory and put the Dockerfile of the Docker image in there. It's reasonably basic, just Ubuntu 20.04 along with some packages:

FROM ubuntu:20.04

#install general package
RUN apt update && apt -y upgrade && apt -y dist-upgrade && apt -y autoremove
RUN apt install -y wget software-properties-common openssl libssl-dev vim curl

#install aarch64 compile
RUN apt install -y gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu g++-aarch64-linux-gnu sudo build-essential

I created a basic devcontainer.json file:

{
    "name": "Build",
    "build": {
        "dockerfile": "Dockerfile",
        "context" : ".."
    }
}

But when I open this using the command "Dev Containers: Open Folder in Container..." it fails with:

[2025-04-07T01:26:03.807Z] [+] Building 0.0s (0/0)                                          docker:default
[2025-04-07T01:26:03.808Z] ERROR: resolve : lstat /tmp/devcontainercli-tom: no such file or directory
[2025-04-07T01:26:03.812Z] Stop (164 ms): Run: docker buildx build --load --build-arg BUILDKIT_INLINE_CACHE=1 -f /tmp/devcontainercli-tom/container-features/0.75.0-1743989163646/Dockerfile-with-features -t vsc-my-project-0e7daada5b87192d14f17d6429b5122695a3e1282fb7f39ca188f42b196e63b1 --target dev_containers_target_stage --build-arg _DEV_CONTAINERS_BASE_IMAGE=dev_container_auto_added_stage_label /home/tom/Documents/GitHub/MyProject

The directory /tmp/devcontainercli-tom exists so where am I going wrong?

Ashiful · Accepted Answer · 2025-04-07 07:24:17Z

0

Try removing the "context" : ".." from devcontainer.json. Your docker file is inside .devcontainer directory. I assume so is devcontainer.json.

answered Apr 7 at 7:24

Ashiful

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4 Comments

parsley72 Apr 8 at 5:33

I added that to see if it fixed the problem; removing it doesn't.

Ashiful Apr 8 at 9:15

I tried and could open any local folder in the container without any issue. Can you try any other local folder in the container?

parsley72 Apr 11 at 0:03

I'm not sure what you mean? The container isn't created.

Ashiful Apr 20 at 4:22

If it has not been created then how could you have option Dev Containers: Open Folder in Container...? Once container is created that allows you to open a loca directory (where your code exists) to open in the container. Try to open a folder that exists in your local.

parsley72 · Accepted Answer · 2025-06-28 22:43:24Z

0

Finally found the problem. Turns out I had Docker installed with Snap and there's a limitation where Snap can't access /tmp: https://github.com/canonical/docker-snap/issues/34#issuecomment-812045834

I had to uninstall Docker from Snap and reinstall using apt-get and now it works: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

answered Jun 28 at 22:43

parsley72

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