Configure Interactive Mode

The development mode of DevSpace can be started using the -i / --interactive flag which overrides the ENTRYPOINT of an image with [sleep, 999999] and opens an interactive terminal session for one of the containers that use the 'sleeping' image. Due to the ENTRYPOINT override, the application has not been started within the container and the user can start the application manually through the interactive terminal session.

To control the default behavior when using the interactive mode, you can configure the dev.interactive section in the devspace.yaml.

images:
  frontend:
    image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/appfrontend
  backend:
    image: john/appbackend
  database:
    image: john/database
deployments:
- name: app-frontend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/appfrontend
- name: app-backend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: john/appbackend
        name: some-container
      - image: john/appbackend
dev:
  interactive:
    images:
    - name: backend
      entrypoint:
      - tail
      cmd:
      - -f
      - /dev/null
    - name: frontend
      entrypoint:
      - /debug_entrypoing.sh
    terminal:
      imageName: backend
      containerName: some-container

Start Interactive Mode

Start the interactive mode using this command:

devspace dev -i

Configuration

images

The images option expects an array of objects having the following properties:

• name stating an image name which references an image in the images within devspace.yaml (required)
• entrypoint defining an ENTRYPOINT override that will be applied only in interactive mode (optional)
• cmd defining a CMD override that will be applied only in interactive mode (optional)

In-Memory Image Override

ENTRYPOINT and CMD overrides for interactive mode work the same way as regular overrides for image building. However, they take precedence over regular overrides and are only used during interactive mode.

note

By default, DevSpace asks which image to override when starting interactive mode (or skips the question if only one image is defined). This image will then be built using the ENTRYPOINT [sleep, 999999] override if not configured differently via images.

Example: Setting Interactive Mode Images

images:
  frontend:
    image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/appfrontend
  backend:
    image: john/appbackend
  database:
    image: john/database
deployments:
- name: app-frontend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/appfrontend
- name: app-backend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: john/appbackend
        name: some-container
      - image: john/appbackend-sidecar
dev:
  interactive:
    images:
    - name: backend
      entrypoint:
      - tail
      cmd:
      - -f
      - /dev/null
    - name: frontend
      entrypoint:
      - /debug_entrypoing.sh

Explanation:

• The above example defines 3 images and 2 deployments.
• The images option defines that the image backend should be built using a ENTRYPOINT [tail] and using CMD [-f, /dev/null] when building this image in interactive mode
• The images option defines that the image frontend should be built using a ENTRYPOINT [/debug_entrypoint.sh] when building this image in interactive mode

terminal

The terminal option expects an object having the following properties:

• imageName to select a container based on an image specified in images
• labelSelector to select a pod based a Kubernetes label selector
• containerName to select a container based on its name (optional, useful if pod has multiple containers)
• namespace to select a container from a namespace different than the default namespace of the current kube-context
• command defines a command to run when starting the terminal session (default: /bin/bash with fallback /bin/sh)

Combine Options

The first four options are used to select the appropriate pod / container. If you specify multiple these config options, they will be jointly used to select the pod / container (think logical AND / &&).

Command Termination

If command is a non-interactive command that terminates, DevSpace will run the command and exits after the command has terminated.

Example: Configuring Terminal for Interactive Mode

images:
  frontend:
    image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/appfrontend
  backend:
    image: john/appbackend
  database:
    image: john/database
deployments:
- name: app-frontend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/appfrontend
- name: app-backend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: john/appbackend
        name: some-container
      - image: john/appbackend-sidecar
dev:
  interactive:
    terminal:
      imageName: backend
      containerName: some-container

Explanation:
The above configuration would open the container with name some-container that belongs to the deployment app-backend when running devspace dev -i.

defaultEnabled

The defaultEnabled option expects a boolean that determines if interactive mode should be started by default even if no -i / --interactive flag was provided.

Default Value For defaultEnabled

defaultEnabled: false

Example: Enabling Interactive Mode By Default

images:
  backend:
    image: john/appbackend
deployments:
- name: app-backend
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: john/appbackend
        name: some-container
      - image: john/appbackend-sidecar
dev:
  interactive:
    defaultEnabled: true
    images:
    - name: backend
      entrypoint:
      - /debug_entrypoing.sh
    terminal:
      imageName: backend
      containerName: some-container

Explanation:
Running devspace dev with the above configuration leads to:

• during image building: the overrides defined in images would be applied
• after deployment: an interactive terminal session for a container with name some-container and with image john/appbackend would be started