Search the Community

Docker launches Testcontainers on former rival Red Hat's OpenShiftView the full article

We’re pleased to announce Docker Desktop 4.27, packed with exciting new features and updates. The new release includes key advancements such as synchronized file shares, collaboration enhancements in Docker Build Cloud, the introduction of the private marketplace for extensions (available for Docker Business customers), and the much-anticipated release of Moby 25. Additionally, we explore the support for Testcontainers with Enhanced Container Isolation, the general availability of docker init with expanded language support, and the beta release of Docker Debug. These updates represent significant strides in improving development workflows, enhancing security, and offering advanced customization for Docker users. Docker Desktop synchronized file shares GA We’re diving into some fantastic updates for Docker Desktop, and we’re especially thrilled to introduce our latest feature, synchronized file shares, which is available now in version 4.27 (Figure 1). Following our acquisition announcement in June 2023, we have integrated the technology behind Mutagen into the core of Docker Desktop. You can now say goodbye to the challenges of using large codebases in containers with virtual filesystems. Synchronized file shares unlock native filesystem performance for bind mounts and provides a remarkable 2-10x boost in file operation speeds. For developers managing extensive codebases, this is a game-changer. Figure 1: Shares have been created and are available for use in containers. To get started, log in to Docker Desktop with your subscription account (Pro, Teams, or Business) to harness the power of Docker Desktop synchronized file shares. You can read more about this feature in the Docker documentation. Collaborate on shared Docker Build Cloud builds in Docker Desktop With the recent GA of Docker Build Cloud, your team can now leverage Docker Desktop to use powerful cloud-based build machines and shared caching to reduce unnecessary rebuilds and get your build done in a fraction of the time, regardless of your local physical hardware. New builds can make instant use of the shared cache. Even if this is your first time building the project, you can immediately speed up build times with shared caches. We know that team members have varying levels of Docker expertise. When a new developer has issues with their build failing, the Builds view makes it effortless for anyone on the team to locate the troublesome build using search and filtering. They can then collaborate on a fix and get unblocked in no time. When all your team is building on the same cloud builder, it can get noisy, so we added filtering by specific build types, helping you focus on the builds that are important to you. Link to builder settings for a build Previously, to access builder settings, you had to jump back to the build list or the settings page, but now you can access them directly from a build (Figure 2). Figure 2: Access builder settings directly from a build. Delete build history for a builder And, until now you could only delete build in batches, which meant if you wanted to clear the build history it required a lot of clicks. This update enables you to clear all builds easily (Figure 3). Figure 3: Painlessly clear the build history for an individual builder. Refresh storage data for your builder at any point in time Refreshing the storage data is an intensive operation, so it only happens periodically. Previously, when you were clearing data, you would have to wait a while to see the update. Now it’s just a one-click process (Figure 4). Figure 4: Quickly refresh storage data for a builder to get an up-to-date view of your usage. New feature: Private marketplace for extensions available for Docker Business subscribers Docker Business customers now have exclusive access to a new feature: the private marketplace for extensions. This enhancement focuses on security, compliance, and customization, and empowering developers, providing: Controlled access: Manage which extensions developers can use through allow-listing. Private distribution: Easily distribute company-specific extensions from a private registry. Customized development: Deploy customized team processes and tools as unpublished/private Docker extensions tailored to a specific organization. The private marketplace for extensions enables a secure, efficient, and tailored development environment, aligning with your enterprise’s specific needs. Get started today by learning how to configure a private marketplace for extensions. Moby 25 release — containerd image store We are happy to announce the release of Moby 25.0 with Docker Desktop 4.27. In case you’re unfamiliar, Moby is the open source project for Docker Engine, which ships in Docker Desktop. We have dedicated significant effort to this release, which marks a major release milestone for the open source Moby project. You can read a comprehensive list of enhancements in the v25.0.0 release notes. With the release of Docker Desktop 4.27, support for the containerd image store has graduated from beta to general availability. This work began in September 2022 when we started extending the Docker Engine integration with containerd, so we are excited to have this functionality reach general availability. This support provides a more robust user experience by natively storing and building multi-platform images and using snapshotters for lazy pulling images (e.g., stargz) and peer-to-peer image distribution (e.g., dragonfly, nydus). It also provides a foundation for you to run Wasm containers (currently in beta). Using the containerd image store is not currently enabled by default for all users but can be enabled in the general settings in Docker Desktop under Use containers for pulling and storing images (Figure 5). Figure 5: Enable use of the containerd image store in the general settings in Docker Desktop. Going forward, we will continue improving the user experience of pushing, pulling, and storing images with the containerd image store, help migrate user images to use containerd, and work toward enabling it by default for all users. As always, you can try any of the features landing in Moby 25 in Docker Desktop. Support for Testcontainers with Enhanced Container Isolation Docker Desktop 4.27 introduces the ability to use the popular Testcontainers framework with Enhanced Container Isolation (ECI). ECI, which is available to Docker Business customers, provides an additional layer of security to prevent malicious workloads running in containers from compromising the Docker Desktop or the host by running containers without root access to the Docker Desktop VM, by vetting sensitive system calls inside containers and other advanced techniques. It’s meant to better secure local development environments. Before Docker Desktop 4.27, ECI blocked mounting the Docker Engine socket into containers to increase security and prevent malicious containers from gaining access to Docker Engine. However, this also prevented legitimate scenarios (such as Testcontainers) from working with ECI. Starting with Docker Desktop 4.27, admins can now configure ECI to allow Docker socket mounts, but in a controlled way (e.g., on trusted images of their choice) and even restrict the commands that may be sent on that socket. This functionality, in turn, enables users to enjoy the combined benefits of frameworks such as Testcontainers (or any others that require containers to access the Docker engine socket) with the extra security and peace of mind provided by ECI. Docker init GA with Java support Initially released in its beta form in Docker 4.18, docker init has undergone several enhancements. The docker init command-line utility aids in the initialization of Docker resources within a project. It automatically generates Dockerfiles, Compose files, and .dockerignore files based on the nature of the project, significantly reducing the setup time and complexity associated with Docker configurations. The initial beta release of docker init only supported Go and generic projects. The latest version, available in Docker 4.27, supports Go, Python, Node.js, Rust, ASP.NET, PHP, and Java (Figure 6). Figure 6. Docker init will suggest the best template for the application. The general availability of docker init offers an efficient and user-friendly way to integrate Docker into your projects. Whether you’re a seasoned Docker user or new to containerization, docker init is ready to enhance your development workflow. Beta release of Docker Debug As previously announced at DockerCon 2023, Docker Debug is now available as a beta offering in Docker Desktop 4.27. Figure 7: Docker Debug. Developers can spend as much as 60% of their time debugging their applications, with much of that time taken up by sorting and configuring tools and setup instead of debugging. Docker Debug (available in Pro, Teams, or Business subscriptions) provides a language-independent, integrated toolbox for debugging local and remote containerized apps — even when the container fails to launch — enabling developers to find and solve problems faster. To get started, run docker debug <Container or Image name> in the Docker Desktop CLI while logged in with your subscription account. Conclusion Docker Desktop’s latest updates and features, from synchronized file shares to the first beta release of Docker Debug, reflect our ongoing commitment to enhancing developer productivity and operational efficiency. Integrating these capabilities into Docker Desktop streamlines development processes and empowers teams to collaborate more effectively and securely. As Docker continues to evolve, we remain dedicated to providing our community and customers with innovative solutions that address the dynamic needs of modern software development. Stay tuned for further updates and enhancements, and as always, we encourage you to explore these new features to see how they can benefit your development workflow. Upgrade to Docker Desktop 4.27 to explore these updates and experiment with Docker’s latest features. Learn more Read the Docker Desktop Release Notes. Install and authenticate against the latest release of Docker Desktop. Learn more about synchronized file shares. Check out Docker Build Cloud. Read Streamline Dockerization with Docker Init GA Read Docker Init: Initialize Dockerfiles and Compose files with a single CLI command. Have questions? The Docker community is here to help. New to Docker? Get started. View the full article

We’re shifting testing “left” to help developers ship quality apps faster I’m thrilled to announce that Docker is whale-coming AtomicJar, the makers of Testcontainers, to the Docker family. With its support for Java, .NET, Node.js, and seven other programming languages, together with its container-based testing automation, Testcontainers has become the de facto standard test framework for the developer’s ”inner loop.” Why? The results speak for themselves — Testcontainers enables step-function improvements in both the quality and speed of application delivery. This addition continues Docker’s focus on improving the developer experience to maximize the time developers spend building innovative apps. Docker already accelerates the “inner loop” app development steps — build, verify (through Docker Scout), run, debug, and share — and now, with AtomicJar and Testcontainers, we’re adding “test.” As a result, developers using Docker will be able to deliver quality applications with less effort, even faster than before. Testcontainers itself is a great open source success story in the developer tools ecosystem. Last year, Testcontainers saw a 100% increase in Docker Hub pulls, from 50 million to 100 million, making it one of the fastest-growing Docker Hub projects. Furthermore, Testcontainers has transformed testing at organizations like DoorDash, Netflix, Spotify, and Uber and thousands more. One of the more exciting things about whale-coming AtomicJar is the bringing together our open source communities. Specifically, the Testcontainers community has deep roots in the programming language communities above. We look forward to continuing to support the Testcontainers open source project and look forward to what our teams do to expand it further. Please join me in whale-coming AtomicJar and Testcontainers to Docker! Sj FAQ | Docker Acquisition of AtomicJar With Docker’s acquisition of AtomicJar and associated Testcontainers projects, you’re sure to have questions. We’ve answered the most common ones in this FAQ. As with all of our open source efforts, Docker strives to do right by the community. We want this acquisition to benefit everyone — community and customer — in keeping with our developer obsession. What will happen to Testcontainers Cloud customers? Customers of AtomicJar’s paid offering, Testcontainers Cloud, will continue while we work to develop new and better integration options. Existing Testcontainers Cloud subscribers will see an update to the supplier on their invoices, but no other billing changes will occur. Will Testcontainers become closed-source? There are no plans to change the licensing structure of Testcontainers’s open source components. Docker has always valued the contributions of open source communities. Will Testcontainers or its companion projects be discontinued? There are no plans to discontinue any Testcontainers projects. Will people still be able to contribute to Testcontainers’s open source projects? Yes! Testcontainers has always benefited from outside collaboration in the form of feedback, discussion, and code contributions, and there’s no desire to change that relationship. For more information about how to participate in Testcontainers’s development, see the contributing guidelines for Java, Go, and .NET. What about other downstream users, companies, and projects using Testcontainers? Testcontainers’ open source licenses will continue to allow the embedding and use of Testcontainers by other projects, products, and tooling. Who will provide support for Testcontainers projects and products? In the short term, support for Testcontainers’s projects and products will continue to be provided through the existing support channels. We will work to merge support into Docker’s channels in the near future. How can I get started with Testcontainers? To get started with Testcontainers follow this guide or one of the guides for a language of your choice: Getting started with Testcontainers for .NET Getting started with Testcontainers for Go Getting started with Testcontainers for Java Getting started with Testcontainers for Node.js View the full article

The sheer number of tools, libraries, and frameworks can give many programmers a headache. Moreover, complex designs often require many of these components to work together or at least not interfere with each other. Database versioning — and integration tests during which we conduct it — are great examples of such problematic cooperation. There is also the aspect of the persistence layer in our code, which will be the subject of the above-mentioned tests. View the full article