docker-eth-dev

Multi-container development environment for building dapps on test chains

Background / Goals

I'm trying to find a suitable solution to the problem of having to run switch between running Ethereum nodes and running dapps. Most of the programs all use the same few ports and don't work together quite so well out of the box.

Docker Compose seems like a reasonable solution - by setting up a virtual network of containers for individual services, and wrapping it behind a web proxy, it should remove a lot of the overhead of process and dependency management.

This project also aims to create a collection of custom wrapper binaries around the supported services, to maintain the interface of local development while everything runs virtualized and separated from localhost.

Overview

This repository is currently a WIP attempt to get a sane (to me?) Ethereum dev environment up and running inside docker-compose.

Dev tools include:

• truffle to build/deploy contracts
• testrpc to run a "dev" blockchain
• parity (against Ropsten) for live testing

Dependencies

• Requires Docker. (tested version 1.13.0-rc2, build 1f9b3ef)
• May require Docker Compose also, depending on your Docker installation.

Getting Started

1. Clone this repository somewhere to be your docker-eth-dev home directory ($ETH)

   git clone https://github.com/gnidan/docker-eth-dev.git <dir>

   This directory will contain the contents of this repository:

   • containers configuration
   • wrapper binaries
   • dapps top-level directory
     • example dapp (the truffle init result, reconfigured)
   • this README

2. Activate shell environment

   source <dir>/bin/activate.sh

   This aliases all the wrapper binaries so they're available for us in the shell.

3. Create Docker volume for Ropsten Parity

   docker volume create --name=parity-testnet-data

   This creates a persistent volume so that the Ropsten account information/ chain data does not get lost when the containers are stopped.

4. Start Docker containers

   docker-compose up -d

   This runs nginx, testrpc, and parity-testnet inside containers. Port 80 will be opened on localhost for nginx's proxy.

5. Add parity-testnet.ethereum to your /etc/hosts file, pointing locally or at your docker-machine

   This is so that nginx may recognize the resource you are trying to reach.

6. Visit http://parity-testnet.ethereum/ in your browser.

7. Run parity-testnet signer new-token in your active env shell.

   In case Parity Wallet needs to authenticate with the running parity-testnet container.

8. Note: In case anything stops working, I find that restarting docker-compose from scratch seems to help:

   docker-compose down
   docker-compose up -d

What Else?

• Dapps should live in separate directories in $ETH/dapps for truffle to behave as expected

• truffle serve configuration could use some love and might not work right.

• This env works by setting alises - if necessary, you can do \truffle, etc.

• This opens port 80 locally. That's currently hardcoded in. I'm looking for ways around this, or to make it easier to deal with.

• I have no idea if configuring Parity behind an nginx proxy is wildly unsafe, hence why it's only set up to do Ropsten right now.

  At the very least, though, I will say that Parity tries very hard to prevent you from configuring it this way.