Reproducible Computational Environments Using Containers: Introduction to Docker: Setup

Website accounts to create

Please seek help at the start of the lesson if you have not been able to establish a website account on:

• The Docker Hub. We will use the Docker Hub to download pre-built container images, and for you to upload and download container images that you create, as explained in the relevant lesson episodes.

Files to download

Download the docker-intro.zip file. This file can alternatively be downloaded from the files directory in the docker-introduction GitHub repository.

Move the downloaded file to your Desktop and unzip it. It should unzip to a folder called docker-intro.

Software to install: Docker

Docker can be installed on Windows 10, macOS and Linux. However, in some cases, installing Docker on your laptop may, unfortunately, not be completely straightforward. We have helpers on hand during the workshop that have worked their way through the install process but be prepared for some troubleshooting.

Please try to install the appropriate software from the list below depending on the operating system that your laptop is running:

Microsoft Windows

You must have admin rights to run docker! Some parts of the lesson will work without running as admin but if you are unable to Run as administrator on your machine some elements of this workshop might not work as described.

On Windows 10, you will need to install Docker Desktop for Windows.

If you have Windows 10 Pro Edition (or Windows 10 Enterprise or Education):

• See these instructions for installing Docker Desktop for Windows.

If you have Windows 10 Home Edition:

• See these instructions for installing Docker Desktop for Windows on Windows 10 Home.

Note that the above installation instructions highlight a minimum version or “build” that is required to be able to install Docker on your Windows 10 system. See Which version of Windows operating system am I running? for details of how to find out which version/build of Windows 10 you have.

If you are unable to follow the above instructions to install Docker on your Windows system, the final release of the deprecated Docker Toolbox version of Docker for Windows can be downloaded from the releases page of the Docker Toolbox GitHub repository. (Download the .exe file for the Windows installer). Please note that this final release of Docker Toolbox includes an old version of Docker and you are strongly advised not to attempt to use this for any production use. It will, however, enable you to follow along with this material.

Apple macOS

Install Docker Desktop for Mac. macOS version 10.14 or newer is required to install this version.

If you have an older version of macOS, you could try installing the now deprecated Docker Toolbox, for the purpose of working through this material, from the releases page of the Docker Toolbox GitHub repository. (Download the .pkg file for the macOS installer).

Please note that this final release of Docker Toolbox includes an old version of Docker and you are strongly advised not to attempt to use this for any production use. It will, however, enable you to follow along with this material.

Linux

There are too many varieties of Linux to give precise instructions here, but hopefully you can locate documentation for getting Docker installed on your Linux distribution. It may already be installed. If it is not already installed on your system, the Install Docker Engine page provides an overview of supported Linux distributions and pointers to relevant installation information. Alternatively, see:

• Docker Engine on CentOS
• Docker Engine on Debian
• Docker Engine on Fedora
• Docker Engine on Ubuntu

A quick tutorial on copy/pasting file contents from episodes of the lesson

Let’s say you want to copy text off the lesson website and paste it into a file named myfile in the current working directory of a shell window. This can be achieved in many ways, depending on your laptop’s operating system, but routes I have found work for me:

• macOS and Linux: you are likely to have the nano editor installed, which provides you with a very straightforward way to create such a file, just run nano myfile, then paste text into the shell window, and press control+x to exit: you will be prompted whether you want to save changes to the file, and you can type y to say “yes”.
• Microsoft Windows running cmd.exe shells:
  • del myfile to remove myfile if it already existed;
  • copy con myfile to mean what’s typed in your shell window is copied into myfile;
  • paste the text you want within myfile into the shell window;
  • type control+z and then press enter to finish copying content into myfile and return to your shell;
  • you can run the command type myfile to check the content of that file, as a double-check.
• Microsoft Windows running PowerShell:

  • The cmd.exe method probably works, but another is to paste your file contents into a so-called “here-string” between @' and '@ as in this example that follows (the “>” is the prompt indicator):

    > @'
    Some hypothetical
    file content that is
    
    split over many
    
    lines.
    '@ | Set-Content myfile -encoding ascii