Customizing VMs

Customize your exe.dev VMs!

Just Use SSH

The simplest and most common approach is to create a VM, and then use ssh, scp, rsync, etc. to customize your VM. Some users clone a repo (possibly using the GitHub integration) and others have a script they run.

See How do I copy files to/from my VM? for more.

Use a custom Docker image

You can customize a Docker image, publish it, and create new VMs using it. The Dockerfile for exeuntu is open source, so you can use that as a base if you'd like. You can also use a private Docker registry to host your images.

ssh exe.dev new --image=myorg/my-custom-image:latest

Custom Image Properties

OCI container labels can change the behavior of how exe.dev treats the image:

LABEL exe.dev/install-shelley=true

exe.dev/install-shelley=true makes exe.dev automatically install a recent Shelley in /usr/local/bin on creation and makes the UI assume that Shelley is installed.

exe.dev/login-user=... configures the user that SSH connections come in as.

Setup scripts

The exeuntu image runs /exe.dev/setup at first boot, once. This file can be specified with new --setup-script as well as cat script | ssh exe.dev defaults write dev.exe new.setup-script.

It is easiest to create a script and pipe it into the new command:

$ cat setup.sh
#!/bin/sh
touch /tmp/foo
$ cat setup.sh | ssh exe.dev new --setup-script /dev/stdin
...
$ ssh scarlet-nebula.exe.xyz ls -l /tmp/foo
-rw-r--r-- 1 exedev exedev 0 Mar 28 00:49 /tmp/foo

You can do it inline as well:

$ ssh exe.dev new --name my-vm --setup-script '"touch /tmp/no-shebang"'
...
$ ssh my-vm.exe.xyz ls -l /tmp/no-shebang
-rw-r--r-- 1 exedev exedev 0 Mar 28 00:52 /tmp/no-shebang

Or, multi-line:

exe.dev ▶ new --name lynx-zebra --setup-script "#!/bin/python3\nopen('/tmp/foo', 'w')"
...
exe.dev ▶ ssh lynx-zebra ls -l /tmp/foo
-rw-r--r-- 1 exedev exedev 0 Mar 28 00:50 /tmp/foo

If you want a default for all your VMs:

$ (echo '#!/bin/bash'; echo touch /tmp/fine) | ssh exe.dev defaults write dev.exe new.setup-script

To read the default back, in full:

$ ssh exe.dev defaults read dev.exe new.setup-script > confirm-setup.sh

To clear the default:

$ ssh exe.dev defaults delete dev.exe new.setup-script

Setup scripts have a maximum size. Use indirection.