So what I'm looking for is some way to build my PLC project in a Docker Container for a nice and easy CI/CD.
From what I found online it is not possible to perform a command line compilation of Beckhoff TwinCAT.
I did find this post on stackoverflow:
TwinCAT3 build on Jenkins
But this requires devenv.exe which is not provided in build tools.
Anyone got a way of building my project within docker?
Building a TwinCAT PLC project programmatically can be done using the TwinCAT automation interface although it is not trivial. This is what is discussed in the post you linked. You must install TwinCAT XAE and then write a (C#) program that builds and deploys your PLC project. I wrote such a program for my customers.
Because a PLC program has real-time requirements it cannot run everywhere. It does not run in Windows but besides Windows such that it can meet its RT requirements. This Windows/TwinCAT combination only runs in specific virtualization platforms/modes. I ran TwinCAT PLC projects in Windows Server Hyper-V and VMware for my customers. You probably will have to run docker on Windows Server Hyper-V in Hyper-V isolation mode.
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My Python project is very windows-centric, we want the benefits of containers but we can't give up Windows just yet.
I'd like to be able to use the Dockerized remote python interpreter feature that comes with IntelliJ. This works flawlessly with Python running on a standard Linux container, but appears to work not at all for Python running on a Windows container.
I've built a new image based on a standard Microsoft Server core image. I've installed Miniconda, bootstrapped a Python environment and verified that I can start an interactive Python session from the command prompt.
Whenever I try to set this up I get an error message: "Can't retrieve image ID from build stream". This occurs at the moment when IntelliJ would have normally detected the python interpreter and it's installed libraries.
I also tried giving the full path for the interpreter: c:\miniconda\envs\htp\python.exe
I've never seen any mention that this works in the documentation, but nor have I seen any mention that it does not work. I totally accept that Windows Containers are an oddity, so it's entirely possible that IntelliJ's remote-Python feature was never tested on Python running in Windows containers.
So, has anybody got this feature working with Python running on a Windows container yet? Is there any reason to believe that it does or does not work?
Regrettably, it is not supported yet. Please vote for the feature request https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-45222 in order to increase its priority.
I am working on a application to deploy challenges for ctfs.
I want to include windows service type challenges, too.
How can I deploy a Portable Executable file on a linux based server?
You can not use docker to run Microsoft Windows. To run Windows executables on linux, you can try to use wine or rely on Virtualization (with a full windows installation inside).
You could also have a look at .net for linux to implement your challenge. This article should get you started if this is what you chose.
I have a private server that I've been slowly setting up for personal projects, but I've run into a bit of a roadblock. My server is running Arch linux [I like bleeding edge and minimalistic installs in situations like this] and I have Jenkins running on it so that I can have it automatically build projects. I have a project that I've been working on that is currently targeting the Win32/64 platform using MSVC, but I can't seem to find any info anywhere about setting up a job on Jenkins for this situation. I was hoping that I could maybe setup a Docker instance that would be able to provide the MSVC toolchain, especially since Visual Studio Code is available for Linux, and that I could use that as part of my Jenkins setup to generate Win binaries for me to test on my main machine. I mention this because naturally, Visual Studio is not a command line utility, and currently my server is a pure headless setup that only provides cli interaction, so if possible, I would like to avoid directly adding GUI packages to the server, but if it is the only way, I'd be willing to do so. Is there really no way to achieve what I'm going for with this?
Sorry if this lacks important details or is formatted poorly, this is my first time asking a question here as it's very rare for me to not be able to find the info I'm looking for in an already existing question.
After research, this is not currently possible as it stems from a misunderstanding of exactly what docker provides. Docker simply uses the underlying OS to provide everything and does not provide any virtualization of foreign OSs. Without a version of the MSVC toolchain that can run on linux, or possibly the use of WINE, there is not a way to achieve this short of a VM. Since WINE is not perfect, the most reliable solution as it appears to me is the VM, but YMMV. The other advantage to using a VM is that I can keep the server headless.
I can't answer this question completely, but this topic is interesting to me too.
Note: Visual Studio Code is open-source, but that's an Electron-based editor. Visual Studio IDE and MSVC are proprietary Windows-only apps.
The website https://blog.sixeyed.com/how-to-dockerize-windows-applications/ suggests it's possible to dockerize Windows apps, including Visual Studio.
Docker images for Windows apps need to be based on microsoft/nanoserver or microsoft/windowsservercore, or on another image based on one of those.
Once you get that working, I'd use Visual Studio command-line builds, like devenv /build file.sln [optionally /project file.vcxproj ]. (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/reference/devenv-command-line-switches?view=vs-2017 ).
Note that the VS2017 installer does not function on Wine. I recently filed a bug for this (https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45749 followed by https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45757 ).
I personally use Appveyor for auto-building MSVC apps. Appveyor is a Windows-based centralized cloud service, not a self-hosted CI system.
I am on a mac but want to build my application on a windows image. Is this possible with docker? If so what image do I need to use?
The reason I need to build the application on windows is for the code signing and binary building of electron. If this is not possible please let me know.
Since docker is not meant to be a UI for users (though it can be); images for Windows 7, 8, 10, et al are not available. However, Windows Server Core IS available via the Docker Hub.
If you simply need a x86 Win environment to build the application that should do the trick. If you need a full GUI, go Virtual Box or other virtualization tech. Docker containers are meant for single process isolation, ever see windows run only 1 process?
Hope this helps!
Update: It IS possible to run GUI applications via Docker; at least on a Linux host. http://fabiorehm.com/blog/2014/09/11/running-gui-apps-with-docker/
Update2: It is now possible to run Windows applications (CLI or GUI) via Docker: here and here has information regarding the process.
My work laptop is running LinuxMint as the base OS, plus Virtualbox to run Windows 7 which is the actual work environment, usually plus an additional Virtualbox VM to run a different Windows installation in which I do my client project work (I have one VM per client, to avoid messing up my main OS).
But I'm wondering if it's feasible and beneficent to switch to using Docker for the client project stuff? That is, I'd like to keep LinuxMint (to preserve my sanity), and keep Windows ('cause I have to use some MS products), but then instead of that series of "client VM's" use Docker containers?
I'm not entirely clear on how containers are useful. Can I, for instance, have a container in which I've installed dotNET and MS SQL; and then another container where I've installed an Azure Powershell; and a third container where I've installed Java and Eclipse -- and then decide which of these "sets" of software is available on the same common base OS (Windows, with VPN and Outlook and Notepad++)?
This post makes me think I'm asking for a solution from the wrong tool?
Or should I perhaps attack the root problem from a different angle, and ask the following over at Workplace.SE: How to work as a consultant without "cluttering up" one's (Windows) OS with more or less temporary installations of all sorts of software necessary for client projects?
AFAIK there is no WindowsOS ready to be run INSIDE a docker container localy, but they are anounced. See www.docker.com/microsoft and msdn windowscontainers
What you can do is run Linux OSs in docker containers within Windows. But in your case you should run the docker engine in your Mint Linux
Not really an answer, more like several comments -- though it's too long to fit within a comment
First of all I would not run Mint, but that's off the question.
Then, it may probably worth to take a look at How is Docker different from a normal virtual machine?.
Also, as you linked, Docker does not aim (at all) to run several programs. Indeed, their policy is Caas: Container as a Service. So basically one program per container. Saying all that, you can probably run wine within container and run one application on each container (over wine).
Have fun!