Visual Studio Docker Support - Debugging with a Dockerfile outside of the startup project folder

user_341062 0
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I have a docker file for a .NET Core project that references some library projects in the same solution.

Given that Docker does not allow copying files from outside of the parent directory (Docker: adding a file from a parent directory), I have to keep my Dockerfile outside of the executable (start up) project directory.

So, how do I use Visual Studio debugging with a Dockerfile that is not located within the executable project?

It seems that Visual Studio only works with the Docker debug profile if it can find a Dockerfile in the directory for the startup project.

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When the Dockerfile is not present in the startup directory, the build error points at lines in a file named Container.targets, located at:

C:\Users<user>\.nuget\packages\microsoft.visualstudio.azure.containers.tools.targets\1.4.10\build

<Target Name="ContainerPrepareForLaunch" Condition="Exists('$(ContainerSemaphoreFilePath)')">
    <PrepareForLaunch DevelopmentMode="$(ContainerDevelopmentMode)"
                      DevEnvDir="$(DevEnvDir)"
                      Dockerfiles="@(_Dockerfile)" 
                      IntermediateOutputPath="$(ContainerIntermediateOutputPath)"
                      ProjectCapability="@(ProjectCapability)"
                      ProjectFilePath="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)" 
                      NuGetPackageFolders="$(NuGetPackageFolders)"
                      NuGetPackageRoot="$(NuGetPackageRoot)"
                      TargetFrameworkWithVersion ="$(TargetFramework)"
                      TargetPath="$(TargetPath)"
                      ErrorLogFilePath="$(ContainerSemaphoreFilePath)"
                      DockerLabelBuiltImages="$(DockerLabelBuiltImages)"
                      DockerImageLabel="$(DockerImageLabel)" 
                      ProjectTypeGuids="$(ProjectTypeGuids)" />
  </Target>

However I need to be able to manage the path to the Dockerfile on a per-project basis.

docker-for-windows asp.net-core docker visual-studio
2 Answers

You can specify DockerfileFile in your project file. The list of available recognized properties can be found here

user_36201740

For Dockerfile, you could only access the files in the parent folder. For Docker for VS debugging, it will access the dockerfile in the project root folder. You could not change this behavior.

For a workaround, you may consider adding docker-compose which could specicify the dockerfile location and run from VS directly.

  1. Right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Add > Container Orchestrator Support.
  2. Choose Docker Compose

  3. Modify docker-compose.yml to change the dockerfilepath in dockerfile variable 

    version: '3.4'

services:
hellodockertools:
    image: ${DOCKER_REGISTRY}hellodockertools
    build:
    context: .
    dockerfile: HelloDockerTools/Dockerfile

  4. Set docker-compose as startup project

user_62656200
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