README-docker.md

What is Docker used for

Developers can simulate Device hardware by compiling and running a linux native binary application. If you do not own a Linux machine, or you just want to separate things, you might want to run simulator inside a docker container

The Image

To build docker image, type

docker build -t meshtastic/device .

Usage

To run a container, type

docker run --rm -p 4403:4403 meshtastic/device

or, to get an interactive shell on the docker created container:

docker run -it -p 4403:4403 meshtastic/device bash

You might want to mount your local development folder:

docker run -it --mount type=bind,source=/PathToMyProjects/Meshtastic/Meshtastic-device-mybranch,target=/Meshtastic-device-mybranch -p 4403:4403 meshtastic/device bash

Build the native application

Linux native application should be built inside the container. For this you must run container with interactive console "-it", as seen above.

First, some environment variables need to be set up with command:

. ~/.platformio/penv/bin/activate

You also want to make some adjustments in the bin/build-all.sh to conform the amd64 build:

  sed -i 's/^BOARDS_ESP32.*/BOARDS_ESP32=""/' bin/build-all.sh
  sed -i 's/^BOARDS_NRF52.*/BOARDS_NRF52=""/' bin/build-all.sh
  sed -i 's/echo "Building SPIFFS.*/exit/' bin/build-all.sh

You can build amd64 image with command

bin/build-all.sh

Executing the application interactively

The built binary file should be found under name release/latest/bins/universal/meshtastic_linux_amd64. If this is not the case, you can also use direct program name: .pio/build/native/program

To use python cli against exposed port 4403, type this in the host machine:

meshtastic --info --host localhost

Stop the container

Run this to get the ID:

docker ps

Stop the container with command:

docker kill <id>

Tip: you can just use the first few characters of the ID in docker commands