code-server

VS Code in the browser — run a full development environment on your FreeBSD server and access it from anywhere.

Port	8080
Registry	ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server
Source	https://github.com/coder/code-server
Website	https://coder.com/docs/code-server

Version Tags

Tag	Description	Best For
latest	Upstream Binary. Built from official release.	Most users. Matches Linux Docker behavior.

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure your host environment is ready. See the Quick Start Guide for host setup instructions.

Deployment

Podman Compose

services:
  code-server:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest"
    container_name: code-server
    environment:
      - PUID=1000  # User ID for the application process
      - PGID=1000  # Group ID for the application process
      - TZ=UTC  # Timezone for the container
      - PASSWORD=<PASSWORD>  # Password for web UI (leave unset to disable auth)
      - DEFAULT_WORKSPACE=  # Default folder opened in the editor (default: /config/workspace)
      - DISABLE_MDO=  # Do not use FreeBSD's mac_do facility to allow executing commands as root from the terminal (optional)
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/code-server:/config"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    restart: unless-stopped

AppJail Director

.env:

# .env

DIRECTOR_PROJECT=code-server
PUID=1000
PGID=1000
TZ=UTC
PASSWORD=<PASSWORD>
DEFAULT_WORKSPACE=
DISABLE_MDO=

appjail-director.yml:

# appjail-director.yml

options:
  - virtualnet: ':<random> default'
  - nat:
services:
  code-server:
    name: code_server
    options:
      - container: 'boot args:--pull'
      - expose: '8080:8080 proto:tcp' \
    oci:
      user: root
      environment:
        - PUID: !ENV '${PUID}'
        - PGID: !ENV '${PGID}'
        - TZ: !ENV '${TZ}'
        - PASSWORD: !ENV '${PASSWORD}'
        - DEFAULT_WORKSPACE: !ENV '${DEFAULT_WORKSPACE}'
        - DISABLE_MDO: !ENV '${DISABLE_MDO}'
    volumes:
      - code-server: /config
volumes:
  code-server:
    device: '/path/to/containers/code-server'

Makejail:

# Makejail

ARG tag=latest

OPTION overwrite=force
OPTION from=ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:${tag}

Note: Exposing ports in AppJail means that your service can be reached from remote hosts. If that is not your intention, do not expose the ports and communicate with the service using the IPv4 address assigned by the virtual network.

Podman CLI

podman run -d --name code-server \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -e PASSWORD=<PASSWORD> \
  -e DEFAULT_WORKSPACE= \
  -e DISABLE_MDO= \
  -v /path/to/containers/code-server:/config \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest

AppJail

appjail oci run -Pd \
  -o overwrite=force \
  -o container="args:--pull" \
  -o virtualnet=":<random> default" \
  -o nat \
  -o expose="8080:8080 proto:tcp" \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -e PASSWORD=<PASSWORD> \
  -e DEFAULT_WORKSPACE= \
  -e DISABLE_MDO= \
  -o fstab="/path/to/containers/code-server /config <pseudofs>" \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest code-server

Note: Exposing ports in AppJail means that your service can be reached from remote hosts. If that is not your intention, do not expose the ports and communicate with the service using the IPv4 address assigned by the virtual network.

Ansible

- name: Deploy code-server
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: code-server
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest"
    state: started
    restart_policy: always
    env:
      PUID: "1000"
      PGID: "1000"
      TZ: "UTC"
      PASSWORD: "<PASSWORD>"
      DEFAULT_WORKSPACE: ""
      DISABLE_MDO: ""
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/code-server:/config"

Access at: http://localhost:8080

Parameters

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
PUID	1000	User ID for the application process
PGID	1000	Group ID for the application process
TZ	UTC	Timezone for the container
PASSWORD	<PASSWORD>	Password for web UI (leave unset to disable auth)
DEFAULT_WORKSPACE	``	Default folder opened in the editor (default: /config/workspace)
DISABLE_MDO	``	Do not use FreeBSD's mac_do facility to allow executing commands as root from the terminal (optional)

Volumes

Path	Description
/config	Configuration directory

Ports

Port	Protocol	Description
8080	TCP	Web UI

!!! warning "Work in Progress" This image is functional but may change significantly in a future release.

Common dev tools (gcc, clang, llvm, python, gmake, git, ssh) are baked into the image for now.

Running commands as root in Terminal

Podman strips the setuid bit from binaries at runtime, so sudo, su, and doas will not work inside the code-server terminal.

To allow running commands as the root user, we can use FreeBSD's MAC framework and the mdo command which does not depend on the setuid bit being set. The mac_do kernel module has to be loaded on the host which runs Podman before the container is started.
You can load the module at runtime by running

kldload mac_do

To load the module automatically during boot you can add it to rc.conf with

sysrc kld_list+=mac_do

If the mac_do module is loaded when the container starts, it will automatically install a rule that allows the bsd user to execute commands as root by running mdo <command>.

To disable the installation of the mac_do rule that allows the privilege elevation, you can set the DISABLE_MDO environment variable to true or yes:

services:
  code-server:
    environment:
      - DISABLE_MDO=true

Installing Packages

If the mac_do module is loaded on the host you can install packages in the terminal by running

mdo pkg install...

If the module is not loaded or if DISABLE_MDO is set to true you have to install additional packages from the host using podman exec:

# Podman
doas podman exec -it -u root code-server pkg install rust cargo

# AppJail
doas appjail cmd jexec code_server pkg install rust cargo

!!! warning "Packages are not persistent" If you recreate the container, you will need to reinstall any packages you have added.

Architectures: amd64 User: bsd (UID/GID via PUID/PGID, defaults to 1000:1000) Base: FreeBSD 15.1

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