code-server

Description / name	Input element
Container Registry
Container Configuration Root Path
Timezone
User ID
Group ID
code-server Host Port
code-server /config Path

VS Code in the browser — run a full development environment on your FreeBSD server and access it from anywhere.


Port	`8080`
Registry	`ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server`
Daemonless	daemonless/code-server
Source	coder/code-server
Website	coder.com/docs/code-server

Version Tags

Tag	Description	Best For
`latest`	Upstream Binary. Built from official release.	Most users. Matches Linux Docker behavior.

Root Privileges Required

Podman on FreeBSD currently requires root. All commands must be run as root (or via doas/sudo).

Before deploying, ensure your host environment is ready. See the Quick Start Guide for host setup instructions.

Deployment

Podman Compose AppJail Director Podman CLI Ansible

services:
  code-server:
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest"
    container_name: code-server
    environment:
      - PUID=1000  # User ID for the application process
      - PGID=1000  # Group ID for the application process
      - TZ=UTC  # Timezone for the container
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/code-server:/config"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    restart: unless-stopped

DIRECTOR_PROJECT=code-server
PUID=1000
PGID=1000
TZ=UTC

options:
  - virtualnet: ':<random> default'
  - nat:
services:
  code-server:
    name: code_server
    options:
      - container: 'boot args:--pull'
    oci:
      user: root
      environment:
        - PUID: !ENV '${PUID}'
        - PGID: !ENV '${PGID}'
        - TZ: !ENV '${TZ}'
    volumes:
      - CODE_SERVER_CONFIG_PATH: /config
volumes:
  CODE_SERVER_CONFIG_PATH:
    device: '/path/to/containers/code-server'

ARG tag=latest

OPTION overwrite=force
OPTION from=ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:${tag}

podman run -d --name code-server \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  -v /path/to/containers/code-server:/config \
  ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest

- name: Deploy code-server
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: code-server
    image: "ghcr.io/daemonless/code-server:latest"
    state: started
    restart_policy: always
    env:
      PUID: "1000"
      PGID: "1000"
      TZ: "UTC"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/containers/code-server:/config"

Interactive Configuration

Parameters

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
`PUID`	`1000`	User ID for the application process
`PGID`	`1000`	Group ID for the application process
`TZ`	`UTC`	Timezone for the container

Volumes

Path	Description
`/config`	Configuration directory

Ports

Port	Protocol	Description
`8080`	TCP	Web UI

Work in Progress

This image is functional but may change significantly in a future release.

Common dev tools (gcc, clang, llvm, python, gmake, git, ssh) are baked into the image for now.

Running commands as `root` in Terminal

Podman strips the setuid bit from binaries at runtime, so sudo, su, and doas will not work inside the code-server terminal.

To allow running commands as the root user, we can use FreeBSD's MAC framework and the mdo command which does not depend on the setuid bit being set. The mac_do kernel module has to be loaded on the host which runs Podman before the container is started.
You can load the module at runtime by running

kldload mac_do

To load the module automatically during boot you can add it to rc.conf with

sysrc kld_list+=mac_do

If the mac_do module is loaded when the container starts, it will automatically install a rule that allows the bsd user to execute commands as root by running mdo <command>.

To disable the installation of the mac_do rule that allows the privilege elevation, you can set the DISABLE_MDO environment variable to true or yes:

services:
  code-server:
    environment:
      - DISABLE_MDO=true

Installing Packages

If the mac_do module is loaded on the host you can install packages in the terminal by running

mdo pkg install...

If the module is not loaded or if DISABLE_MDO is set to true you have to install additional packages from the host using podman exec:

# Podman
doas podman exec -it -u root code-server pkg install rust cargo

# AppJail
doas appjail cmd jexec code_server pkg install rust cargo

Packages are not persistent

If you recreate the container, you will need to reinstall any packages you have added.

Implementation Details

Architectures: amd64
User: bsd (UID/GID set via PUID/PGID). Defaults to 1000:1000.
Base: Built on ghcr.io/daemonless/base (FreeBSD 15.0).

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