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Use the containerized dev environments

The dev_scripts/env.py script creates environments in which Dangerzone can run. You can also run arbitrary commands in them. In practice, it's useful for generating packages for Linux OSes other than the one installed on your machine. For the design and the caveats behind these environments, see Development environments.

For the full usage information, run ./dev_scripts/env.py --help.

Pick an environment type

The script supports two types of environments:

  • a dev environment with the developer tools baked in and the source tree mounted ;
  • an end-user environment with only Dangerzone installed from a .deb/.rpm (or from our QA or production repositories with --qa / --prod).

They are described in Create Dangerzone environments. Each environment corresponds to a Dockerfile, which is generated on the fly. You can see the Dockerfile by passing --show-dockerfile.

Build and enter a dev environment

./dev_scripts/env.py --distro debian --version bookworm build-dev
./dev_scripts/env.py --distro debian --version bookworm run --dev bash

Inside the shell, the source tree is at /home/user/dangerzone, so the usual commands work:

cd dangerzone
poetry run mazette install
poetry run dangerzone-image prepare-archive --output share/container.tar
poetry run make test

Replace --distro debian --version bookworm with, for example, --distro fedora --version 44 or --distro ubuntu --version noble.

Run a single command

You can also run one command and get its exit status, which is how the release instructions build packages:

./dev_scripts/env.py --distro debian --version bookworm run --dev bash -c \
    "cd dangerzone && ./install/linux/build-deb.py"

Build and enter an end-user environment

Build a .deb or .rpm first (it is picked up from deb_dist/ or dist/), then:

./dev_scripts/env.py --distro fedora --version 44 build
./dev_scripts/env.py --distro fedora --version 44 run bash

Add --qa or --prod to build to install the package from our QA or production repositories instead, and --full to install the dangerzone-full variant with the bundled container.

The environments are containers with the X11 socket mounted, so dangerzone opens its window on your desktop. Containers are deleted when the command exits, so anything you change inside is lost, on purpose.