Containerize GUI Applications on Mac

After watching Container Hacks and Fun Images by Jessie Frazelle, I wanted to Containerize my GUI applications on OS X.

• OS X doesn’t expose device files /dev/snd or /dev/video.
• OS X doesn’t have a default x11 client. So we have to rely on XQuartz

This guide is tested under

• OS X El Capitan (version 10.11.4)
• Docker for Mac (1.12.0-beta21)
• XQuartz (2.7.10_beta2)

It also works well under OS X(10.11.5) and Docker for Mac(1.12 stable) but XQuartz version must be 2.7.1_beta2(latest as of now). As pointed by Fredrik Averpil, there is a bug in XQuartz 2.7.9 stable version, which prevents opening the display from remote.

Note: After installing XQuartz you need to log out and log in back.

Running a container

• Start xQuartz

$ open -a XQuartz

• Allow connections from remote clients

  • xQuartz’s Preference → Security → Allow connections from network clients
    
  • Get the ip address of your local machine

  $ ip=$(ifconfig en0 | grep inet | awk '$1=="inet" {print $2}')

  • Add your local machine to ACL. Using hostname is safer than using ip address.

  $ /usr/X11R6/bin/xhost + $(hostname)

• Run firefox. Let’s use Jessie Frazzelle’s firefox image

$ docker run -d --name firefox -e DISPLAY=$ip:0 -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix jess/firefox

Edit: There is a new post with improved security using xauth instead of xhost.