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Docker Testing Environment

This directory contains a Docker-based testing environment for validating chezmoi dotfiles installation in a clean Alpine Linux container.

Quick Start

# Build and run interactive shell
./docker-test.sh run

# Quick verification test
./docker-test.sh test

# Clean up everything
./docker-test.sh clean

Manual Docker Commands

# Build the container
docker compose build

# Run interactive shell
docker compose run --rm dotfiles

# Run specific command
docker compose run --rm dotfiles fish -c "chezmoi verify"

# Clean up
docker compose down --rmi all

Container Details

  • Base Image: Alpine Linux 3
  • Shell: Fish (with bash also available)
  • User: tester (non-root)
  • Chezmoi: Latest version from get.chezmoi.io
  • Working Directory: /home/tester

What Gets Tested

The Dockerfile performs these steps:

  1. Installs fish, git, curl, and age
  2. Installs latest chezmoi
  3. Creates a test user with fish as default shell
  4. Initializes chezmoi from the dotfiles source
  5. Applies all dotfiles with chezmoi apply -v
  6. Verifies installation with chezmoi verify

Troubleshooting

Build fails during chezmoi apply

Check the verbose output to see which file is causing issues. Common problems:

  • Templates requiring data: Ensure .chezmoidata.toml has all required values
  • Platform-specific files: Check .chezmoiignore excludes unsupported files
  • External dependencies: Some configs may require tools not installed in Alpine

Shell doesn't start

The container defaults to fish shell. If fish installation fails, you can temporarily change CMD ["/bin/fish"] to CMD ["/bin/bash"] in the Dockerfile.

Missing tools

The container includes minimal tools. Add additional packages to the apk add line in the Dockerfile:

RUN apk add --no-cache \
    bash \
    fish \
    git \
    curl \
    shadow \
    age \
    # Add more tools here
    neovim \
    tmux

CI Integration

This Docker setup can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines:

# .github/workflows/test-dotfiles.yml
name: Test Dotfiles

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Build and test dotfiles
        run: docker compose run --rm dotfiles fish -c "chezmoi verify"

Advanced Usage

Persistent Testing

Uncomment the volume section in docker-compose.yml to persist the home directory between runs:

volumes:
  - dotfiles-test-home:/home/tester

Multi-Platform Testing

Test on different architectures:

# Build for ARM64 (e.g., Apple Silicon)
docker buildx build --platform linux/arm64 -t dotfiles-arm64 .

# Build for AMD64
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 -t dotfiles-amd64 .

Interactive Development

Start a container and keep it running for iterative testing:

docker compose up -d
docker compose exec dotfiles fish
# Make changes, test, repeat
docker compose down

Limitations

  • Alpine-specific: Uses Alpine Linux, which may behave differently than Ubuntu/macOS
  • Minimal tools: Only essential tools installed by default
  • No systemd: Services that require systemd won't work
  • Templates: Platform-specific templates may not render correctly on Alpine

See Also