Distributing feature templates

[joshspicer]

breaking out the distribution of 'dev container templates' #7.

[Chuxel]

Proposals are described at:

• https://github.com/devcontainers/spec/blob/main/proposals/devcontainer-templates.md
• https://github.com/devcontainers/spec/blob/main/proposals/devcontainer-templates-distribution.md

[Chuxel]

This has been implemented and integrated in the reference implmentation! Should we move the docs out of proposed at this point?

[aservedio]

Hello! I have a question that is similar to an already closed issue above that says this issue here resolves, but reading the proposals above and the entirety of containers.dev I am unable to find the answer.

If you create your own devcontainer template, is there any way for users or yourself to consume them beside adding them to this specific repo/file?

Maybe some VSCode setting where you can add the your own OCI collections created with the devcontainer cli tool?

Either way, unless I'm mistaken, none of that is documented anywhere. If that's intentional, it should be mentioned somewhere that you should not author a devcontainer template if you don't intend to add it to that collection yaml list above otherwise you will not be able to use them.

Thanks

[joshspicer]

Hey @aservedio! That functionality is not clearly documented, but indeed built into the CLI as the templates apply command. We use the CLI in the extension to directly apply the template.

As an example applying the debian template

[robinWongM]

Hey @aservedio! That functionality is not clearly documented, but indeed built into the CLI as the templates apply command. We use the CLI in the extension to directly apply the template.

As an example applying the debian template

Will VS Code Dev Containers extension gain the same functionality?

[Chuxel]

@joshspicer @samruddhikhandale @bamurtaugh @chrmarti Sounds like the request here is more for a private index. We've had this request for Features as well, but there you can at least directly reference.

Do we have an issue tracking this already? If not, we should probably create one. Maybe in the CLI repo?

[chrmarti]

microsoft/vscode-remote-release#7960 ask for supporting a private index for features.

[aacebedo]

Seems private index is dead at the moment right? That's sad it would have been of great use.

[bamurtaugh]

@aacebedo apologies for the confusion! microsoft/vscode-remote-release#7960 auto-closed, but we're still exploring the idea of a private index. Let's use this issue to track it on a spec-wide level.

[Md0135]

Türkiye

[tclarke]

I'd also like to customize the wizard to use additional feature and template indicies. I've got a git repo setup with associated OCI images for my features and templates and I can use the devcontainer CLI to apply them. I'd like to either be able to have a vscode setting to set the indices to search in the wizard. An alternate/additional useful feature would be to just enter a template or feature OCI image name instead of having to choose just from the index.