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Linux machines

Linux machines

A Linux machine is a long-lived Linux environment on eDock's engine. It's like a small server you keep:

  • Your Mac user is in it, with the same name and uid, and passwordless sudo.
  • /Users is at the same path as on the Mac, so a project in ~/Code/app is at ~/Code/app in the machine too.
  • It keeps its own files (installed packages, /etc, databases) until you delete it.

Machines run on eDock's engine. While the app shows another engine, the page offers to switch.

Make one

On Machines, under New machine:

  1. Give it a name: letters, digits and dashes.
  2. Pick a distribution:
    • Ubuntu 24.04 (the default)
    • Debian 13
    • Alpine 3.22
    • Fedora 42
    • Arch Linux
    • Rocky Linux 9
    • openSUSE Tumbleweed
  3. Tick systemd if you want services managed as on a real server. systemd runs as the machine's init, which makes the machine privileged.
  4. Leave Mac's SSH agent ticked for git and ssh in the machine to use your Mac's keys (GitHub, servers, private package registries). The keys stay on the Mac: the machine only asks the Mac's agent to sign, through SSH_AUTH_SOCK (/run/host-services/ssh-auth.sock).
  5. Press Create.

The first machine of a distribution pulls its image; after that, a new one is ready in seconds. Then its page opens, with a shell.

Use one

A machine's page has a login shell as your user, in your home: bash when the distribution has it, otherwise sh. It's the same terminal as a container's, with colours, cursor keys and full-screen programs.

From a terminal, the same shell:

edock machine shell dev
edock machine shell dev -- uname -a     # one command

On the Machines list, each machine has Shell, Start or Stop, Restart and Delete. Machines start again with the engine, unless you stopped them.

A machine made before eDock 0.6.0, or without the SSH agent, doesn't get it later: make it again with it ticked.

Delete one

Delete removes the machine and everything that's only in it: its packages, its /etc and its own files. Your files in /Users are the Mac's, and stay.

Under the hood

A machine is a container named machine-<name>, labelled app.edock.machine. Containers shows it when you turn on eDock's own, and a prune never removes it, even stopped. See edock machine for the command line.

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