DevEnv

This is a set of scripts that facilitates the use of https on a local host for any project you run in Docker.

Contents

• Prerequisites
• Nginx Proxy Installation
• Local HTTPS Certificates
• Setting up *.devenv.test
• Attaching your application to nginx-proxy

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Prerequisites

• OS
  • macOS
  • Linux
  • Windows 10
• Docker

Linux and macOS scripts assume bash (or a compatible shell) to be used. If you use another shell, please use its syntax if it differs from bash.

On Windows Powershell is used.

Nginx Proxy Installation

To get started with the local dev environment, you need to install and run the Nginx Proxy container, which DevEnv projects rely on.

• To start, clone this repository and go to the nginx-proxy directory:

  git clone git@github.com:denisvmedia/devenv.git
  cd devenv/nginx-proxy

• Then, create a new docker network:

  docker network create nginx-proxy

• Finally, run the nginx-proxy container:

  docker-compose up --build -d

For the additional information on how nginx-proxy works, please refer to the original documentation.

Local HTTPS certificates

Many functionalities of DevEnv are https only (e.g. push notifications). In order to be able of use those, we need to install an HTTPS certificate locally. mkcert is a simple zero-config tool to make locally trusted development certificates with any names you’d like.

• Use the official documentation to install mkcert on your platform.

  After having mkcert installed we can create our local certificates. Since DevEnv uses multiple domains, we can generate a wildcard one:

  # change to nginx-proxy/certs - the folder where nginx-proxy expects the certificates
  cd devenv/nginx-proxy/certs
  
  # generate the certificates
  mkcert -cert-file=devenv.test.crt -key-file=devenv.test.key *.devenv.test

  Where devenv.test is the domain, which nginx-proxy will listen to. If you want, you can configure your own domain in docker-compose.override.yml.

• To make your system and browsers trust the newly generated certificates you should run the following:

  mkcert -install

Now you have your local HTTPS certificate.

Setting up *.devenv.test

As a rule of thumb, don't touch your /etc/hosts file as there are smarter ways to solve a problem of development domains.

• Ubuntu 20.04
  • Run bash ubuntu2004-test-domain.sh script (utilizes dnsmasq and systemd-resolved).
• macOS
  • Run bash macos-test-domain.sh script (utilizes dnsmasq).
• Windows 10
  • Run powershell.exe -File windows-test-domain.ps1 (will run CoreDNS in Docker).

Attaching your application to nginx-proxy

Check this link for a demo application that exposes an http endpoint that becomes visible to nginx-proxy. To test it first run this script:

cd sample-project
docker-compose up --build

Then navigate in your browser to this link.

If you did everything properly, you should see a "Hello World" page without any certificate issues.