[Feature Request] Auto start/stop containers when opening/closing vscode

[lonix1]

My workspace defines various docker-compose.yml files - e.g. to start a database, or some other service which I need while coding. So when I open the workspace, I first have to start those containers.

Please consider a feature which auto-starts specific containers when the workspace is opened, and auto-stops/removes them when the workspace is closed.

That would greatly simplify development.

---

The compose files could be specified in a project/.vscode/.docker config file, e.g.:

{
  "autoUp": [
    "src/foo/docker-compose.yml"
    "src/bar/docker-compose.yml"
  ],
  "autoDown": [
    "src/foo/docker-compose.yml"
  ],
  "autoRemove": [
    "src/bar/docker-compose.yml"
  ]
}

(That would be better than specifying it in the project/.vscode/settings.json as that would be checked into source control, whereas the project/.vscode/.docker config file is a per-developer preference - e.g. some devs must start the database, whereas others may start redis or whatever.)

[Karol Zadora-Przylecki (karolz-ms)]

lonix1 what you can do today is use runOn: folderOpen run option to run a VS Code task when a folder is open: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_run-behavior
Unfortunately there does not seem to be an equivalent mechanism to run a task on folder close, but you can run one manually when you are done working with a workspace. For myself I created a keyboard shortcut for Tasks: Run Task command that makes this even simpler:

{
    "key": "alt+t",
    "command": "workbench.action.tasks.runTask"
}

The automatically-run task can be anything, but in your scenario it makes sense to use a Docker Compose task provided by the extension: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/containers/reference#_docker-compose-task

Let us know if that helps!

[lonix1]

Karol Zadora-Przylecki (@karolz-ms) I found another way which doesn't even need the extension:

The keybinding:

{
  "key": "ctrl+t",
  "command": "workbench.action.tasks.runTask",
  "args": "toggle database",
},

The task:

{
  "label": "toggle database",
  "type": "shell",
  "command": "CONTAINER=container_name; FILE=${workspaceFolder}/foo/docker-compose.yml; [ $(docker ps --format='{{.Names}}' | grep $CONTAINER | wc -l) -eq 0 ] && docker-compose --file $FILE up --detach || docker-compose --file $FILE down",
},

I couldn't find a way to break the command into separate lines, but it works.

This toggles the container up/down each time one presses the shortcut. It doesn't do auto start/stop with vscode open/close, but it's still useful.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[Karol Zadora-Przylecki (karolz-ms)]

Very nice! ❤️