A collection of images for running FEniCS inside Linux containers
using Docker (https://www.docker.com/) are now available. With a
container image, a FEniCS environment can be quickly and reliably
created with just one line. There is no performance difference with
respect to a 'native installation' (including when running in parallel
with MPI), and once downloaded a container can be launched
near-instantly. This provides immediately a shell within which FEniCS
code can be executed. In many cases, the Docker images will be faster
than user installations on the same system as we have tuned the builds
for performance.
Once you have Docker installed, getting a FEniCS release environment
is as simple as:
docker run -t -i fenicsproject/stable-ppa:latest
To launch the container and mount the current directory inside the container:
docker run -v $(pwd)/build:/home/fenics/build -t -i
fenicsproject/stable-ppa:latest
You can launch as many containers as you wish.
The images are built and hosted on Dockerhub at
https://registry.hub.docker.com/repos/fenicsproject/. At present we
provide three images:
1. A release environment based in the latest release PPA
(https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/fenicsproject/stable-ppa/)
2. A pre-built, recent development version snapshot of FEniCS
(https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/fenicsproject/dev/), which includes
a script for updating the FEniCS build.
3. A FEniCS development environment image, which provides all the
necessary FEniCS dependencies but does not provide FEniCS. This image
is suitable for developers who wish to build the FEniCS libraries
themselves. It provides a script for building or updating a
development version of FEniCS. Image (2) builds on this image.
Instructions for launching the containers are provided on the
Dockerhub page for each image.
The images are based on a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS image that is tailored to
Docker containers. For those who are interested, the Dockerfiles are
hosted at https://github.com/fenics/docker, and new images are
automatically built on Dockerhub when a change is pushed to the
repository that holds the Dockerfiles. The Dockerfiles provide
advanced users with a guide on how to create customised FEniCS
environments.
There will be live demonstrations of Docker use at the FEniCS'15
Workshop. We'll be refining guides to using Linux containers with
FEniCS as we get feedback. Please send any feedback on the containers
to [email protected], and register any issues at
https://github.com/FEniCS/docker/issues.
Garth, Jack and Larry
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