Dev Container Source on Host

[john-]

Thanks to @roflcoopter in this discussion I have git working in a dev container working when I launch vs code using the method in the developer documentation.

Now I would like to use a dev container but keep the source code on the host. With the method above the code seems to be a in a docker volume or something and I want direct access outside the container as well.

My search indicates this is possible and I have seen modifications made to devcontainer.json to do it but my hacks result in non-working dev containers. Any assistance would be appreciated.

[roflcoopter]

This is how I have done it, cloned the repo on the host.

You simply clone it, open the folder in VSCode, and it should prompt you to open in the Devcontainer. No modifications should be necessary.

Do you get any specific error messages?

[john-]

I did a docker system/volume prune --all to start. I open source directory and it prompts me to open as dev container. Deep into to container build and I get this error:

[snip]

npm error code EACCES
npm error syscall mkdir
npm error path /workspaces/viseron/frontend/node_modules
npm error errno -13
npm error Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/workspaces/viseron/frontend/node_modules'
npm error     at async mkdir (node:internal/fs/promises:858:10)
npm error     at async /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:639:20
npm error     at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)
npm error     at async [reifyPackages] (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:337:11)
npm error     at async Arborist.reify (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:142:5)
npm error     at async Install.exec (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/commands/install.js:149:5)
npm error     at async Npm.exec (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/npm.js:208:9)
npm error     at async module.exports (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli/entry.js:67:5) {
npm error   errno: -13,
npm error   code: 'EACCES',
npm error   syscall: 'mkdir',
npm error   path: '/workspaces/viseron/frontend/node_modules'
npm error }
npm error
npm error The operation was rejected by your operating system.
npm error It is likely you do not have the permissions to access this file as the current user
npm error
npm error If you believe this might be a permissions issue, please double-check the
npm error permissions of the file and its containing directories, or try running
npm error the command again as root/Administrator.
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/abc/.npm/_logs/2025-06-23T19_13_22_124Z-debug-0.log
[263696 ms] postCreateCommand from devcontainer.json failed with exit code 243. Skipping any further user-provided commands.
Done. Press any key to close the terminal.

# after hitting a key...
[263707 ms] Error: Command failed: /bin/sh -c .devcontainer/setup.sh
[263707 ms]     at E (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:235:157)
[263708 ms]     at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)
[263708 ms]     at async b9 (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:237:119)
[263708 ms]     at async ND (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:226:4668)
[263708 ms]     at async RD (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:226:4013)
[263709 ms]     at async MD (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:226:3217)
[263709 ms]     at async b7 (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:668:2746)
[263709 ms]     at async N7 (/home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:667:8546)
[263710 ms]     at async /home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js:484:1188
[263769 ms] Exit code 1
[263771 ms] Command failed: /usr/share/code/code /home/me/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.417.0/dist/spec-node/devContainersSpecCLI.js run-user-commands --user-data-folder /home/me/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers/data --container-session-data-folder /tmp/devcontainers-f34cc6c2-c0ef-4c3f-8be9-dcc24d1dc83b1750705744826 --workspace-folder /home/me/viseron --id-label devcontainer.local_folder=/home/me/viseron --id-label devcontainer.config_file=/home/me/viseron/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json --container-id 395e50b0d5cf9b037d16ac2ce32531bf140287790370f44b4e5eb4f026fc7098 --log-level debug --log-format json --config /home/me/viseron/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json --default-user-env-probe loginInteractiveShell --skip-non-blocking-commands false --prebuild false --stop-for-personalization true --remote-env REMOTE_CONTAINERS_IPC=/tmp/vscode-remote-containers-ipc-fa4029d3-9274-4a4c-bb53-79f4e857c3b5.sock --remote-env SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/vscode-ssh-auth-fa4029d3-9274-4a4c-bb53-79f4e857c3b5.sock --remote-env DISPLAY=:0 --remote-env REMOTE_CONTAINERS_DISPLAY_SOCK=/tmp/.X11-unix/X0 --remote-env REMOTE_CONTAINERS=true --mount-workspace-git-root --terminal-columns 75 --terminal-rows 9 --dotfiles-target-path ~/dotfiles

[snip]

[322203 ms] Start: Run in container: mkdir -p '/vscode/vscode-server/extensionsCache' && cd '/home/abc/.vscode-server/extensionsCache' && cp 'ms-python.debugpy-2025.8.0-linux-x64' 'ms-python.mypy-type-checker-2025.2.0' 'ms-python.python-2025.8.0-linux-x64' 'ms-python.vscode-pylance-2025.6.1' '/vscode/vscode-server/extensionsCache'
[322253 ms] 
[322253 ms] 
[322254 ms] Start: Run in container: cd '/vscode/vscode-server/extensionsCache' && ls -t | tail -n +500 | xargs rm -f

The container is loaded at this point. I see now that I can create a file on the host and it appears in the container. I cannot modify files in vs code or from a vs code terminal. I get permission errors like Error: EACCES: permission denied.