cli50

cli50 is a command-line tool via which you can (easily!) mount a directory within a container running cs50/cli, a Docker image based on Ubuntu 22.04, a popular distribution of Linux. We use cli50 to work on CS50’s own apps in a standard, contained environment, without having to install apps’ dependencies on our own Macs and PCs. It provides a command-line environment similar, but not quite identical to, a terminal window in Visual Studio Code for CS50. It also supports Docker outside of Docker (DooD).

Installation

  1. Install Docker, if you haven’t already.

  2. Install Python 3.8 or later, if you haven’t already.

  3. Install pip, if you haven’t already.

  4. Install cli50 itself:

    pip3 install cli50
    

Upgrading

pip install --upgrade cli50

Usage

usage: cli50 [-h] [-d DOTFILE] [-f] [-j] [-l [CONTAINER]] [-p PORT] [-S] [-t TAG] [-V] [DIRECTORY]

positional arguments:
  DIRECTORY             directory to mount, else $PWD

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d DOTFILE, --dotfile DOTFILE
                        dotfile in your $HOME to mount read-only in container's $HOME
  -f, --fast            don't check for updates
  -j, --jekyll          serve Jekyll site
  -l [CONTAINER], --login [CONTAINER]
                        log into CONTAINER
  -p PORT, --port PORT  publish PORT
  -S, --stop            stop any containers
  -t TAG, --tag TAG     start cs50/cli:TAG, else cs50/cli:latest
  -V, --version         show program's version number and exit

Examples

Mount current working directory

cli50

Your current working directory will be mounted in /mnt within the container.

Mount any directory

Assuming path/to/directory is that directory’s absolute path, you can mount it within the container as follows:

cli50 path/to/directory

The directory will be mounted in /mnt within the container.

Mount dotfile

You can additionally mount a dotfile (or any other file or directory) read-only in $HOME within the container as follows:

cli50 ~/.file

For instance, it might be useful to mount one’s own .bashrc:

cli50 -d ~/.bashrc

Or one’s .ssh directory, so that you can use your own SSH keys within the container:

cli50 -d ~/.ssh

Don’t check for updates

By default, cli50 checks for updates to itself as well as cs50/cli, the Docker image on which it’s based. You can skip those checks as follows:

cli50 -f

Log into running container

If a container (based on any Docker image, cs50/cli or otherwise) is already running, you can spawn a login shell within it as follows:

cli50 -l

If multiple containers are running, you’ll be asked, yes or no, in reverse-chronological order, into which container you’d like to log in.

Mount ~/.* in container’s $HOME

You can mount, read-only, a dotfile that’s in your $HOME (e.g., ~/.vimrc) inside of a container’s $HOME as follows:

cli50 -d .vimrc

Directories (e.g., ~/.vim) are supported as well:

cli50 -d .vim

Exposing a port

By default, cli50 exposes TCP ports 5000 and 8080, whereby those ports in the container will be mapped to the same on the host (or, if already in use, to pseudorandom ports). You can expose other ports (between 1024 and 65535, inclusive) instead too.

You can expose a single port (e.g., 1024) as follows:

cli50 -p 1024

Or you can expose multiple ports (e.g., 1024 and 65535) as follows:

cli50 -p 1024 -p 65535

Source Code

https://github.com/cs50/cli50