Improving Linux/ Ubuntu Developer and Dockerization

[uv-goswami]

Hi everyone! I'm Yuvraj Singh, and I'm interested in contributing to Neutralinojs.

I have successfully set up the framework development environment on Ubuntu, compiled it and verified that 325 tests successfully passed.
While setting up, I noticed some environment conflicts specifically when running Neutralino through terminals managed by Snap (like the default VS Code terminal on Ubuntu), which leads to libpthread symbol errors. In my case I switched to Ubuntu system terminal for executing test.

cd spec
npm install
npm run test

To solve this and make the development process more user friendly, I am working on creating a Docker-based development environment. My goal is to provide a containerized setup that:

• Bundles all necessary C++ compilation tools and GTK/WebKit dependencies.
• Provides a "clean room" environment to run the integration tests without host-system library interference.
• Uses Xvfb for headless testing within the container.

I’m looking forward to sharing a prototype of the Dockerfile soon and would love to hear any feedback on how this could best fit into the current CI/CD or developer workflow.

[prasu-baran]

Hello @uv-goswami ! ,
Do you have many reasons in support of it as I honestly feels like neutralinojs is made for small and portable desktop app with small binary files having minimal runtime and simple distribution. So dockerisation is not actually done for that simple things it is employed for heavy cloud and services which I don't see present for now better would be we can think of correcting those missing chunks present which you are suggesting.

[uv-goswami]

Hi @prasu-baran ,
I agree that Neu is made to be minimal and lightweight. Shipping Docker to end user would defeat the purpose of being lightweight. We shouldn't bloat the final product with docker.

However, my proposal is not about using Docker to ship or run Neu apps for end users. I'm proposing Docker as an optional tool to containerize the Build Environment for the framework contributors of Neutrainojs .

While the framework itself is lightweight , the build chain required is highly dependent on the Host OS. As I experienced with the Snap managed VS-Code, host-system pollution can easily block new contributors who are just starting.

An optional Dockerfile would provide a clean room to work with, regardless of the host OS. It'll eliminate the It works on my device problem.

[prasu-baran]

I thinks their are currently many things in inital state many works are left to be completed related to it's current working as if you look over the projects mentioned by neutralinojs alongwith current issues and PRs they all are now aligned towards making it complete and the dockerisation things comes as a next step after completion of that so it is a good to go option but right now it is not worth working over it this i think right now .