qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer repository overview

⁠Latex Dev Container

Ultimate Latex development container for Visual Studio Code

⁠Features

• Fastest way to code LaTex and produce a pdf file when saving your .tex file
• Uses texlive 2026⁠
• Based on Debian Bullseye Slim, using qmcgaw/basedevcontainer⁠
• Compatible with amd64 and aarch64
• Two Docker images:
  • qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer:latest (default) which uses the TexLive basic scheme and has an uncompressed image size of 467MB
  • qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer:latest-full which uses the TexLive full scheme and has an uncompressed image size of 4.2GB - most packages you would need are already installed.
• Comes with tlmgr to install more LaTex packages as needed
• Latex compilation to pdf with latexmk⁠
• Formatting on save using latexindent⁠
• Latex linting using chktex⁠ built from source
• Using the LaTex-Workshop VScode extension⁠
• Compatible with amd64, ARM 64 bit, ARM 32 bit v6 and v7 (TeXLive not available on ARM, create an issue if you need it)
• Cross platform
  • Easily bind mount your SSH keys to use with git
  • Manage your host Docker from within the dev container, more details at qmcgaw/basedevcontainer⁠
• Extensible with docker-compose.yml
• Minimal uncompressed image size of 467MB

⁠Requirements

• Docker⁠ installed and running
  • If you don't use Linux, share the directories ~/.ssh and the directory of your project with Docker Desktop
• Docker Compose⁠ installed
• VS code⁠ installed
• VS code remote containers extension⁠ installed

⁠Setup for a project

1. Setup your configuration files

   • With style 💯

     docker run -it --rm -v "/yourrepopath:/repository" qmcgaw/devtainr:v0.4.0 -dev latex -path /repository -name projectname
     

     Copy

     Or use the built binary⁠

   • Or manually: download this repository and put the .devcontainer⁠ directory in your project.

2. Open the command palette in Visual Studio Code (CTRL+SHIFT+P) and select Remote-Containers: Open Folder in Container... and choose your project directory

⁠Install LaTex packages

If you need for example the package lastpage, open the integrated terminal in VS Code, select zsh and enter:

tlmgr install lastpage
texhash

⁠Update the Latex Docker image

1. Pull the docker image

   docker pull qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer
   

   Copy

2. Open the command palette in Visual Studio Code (CTRL+SHIFT+P) and select Remote-Containers: Rebuild and Reopen in Container.... ⚠️ this will erase your container shell history and custom latex packages you added on top of the base image.

⁠More

⁠devcontainer.json

• You can change the "postCreateCommand" to be relevant to your situation. For example:

  "postCreateCommand": "tlmgr update --self && tlmgr install acronym pgf && texhash",
  

  Copy

• You can change the extensions installed in the Docker image within the "customizations/vscode/extensions" array

• Other Latex settings can be changed or added in the "customizations/vscode/settings" object.

⁠Development image

• You can build the development image yourself:

  docker build -t qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer -f Dockerfile https://github.com/qdm12/latexdevcontainer.git
  

  Copy

• You can extend the Docker image qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer with your own instructions.

  1. Create a file .devcontainer/Dockerfile with FROM qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer

  2. Append instructions to the Dockerfile created. For example:

     FROM qmcgaw/latexdevcontainer
     RUN tlmgr install lastpage
     

     Copy

  3. Modify .devcontainer/docker-compose.yml and add build: . in the vscode service.

  4. Open the VS code command palette and choose Remote-Containers: Rebuild container

• You can bind mount a shell script to /home/vscode/.welcome.sh to replace the current welcome script⁠

⁠TODOs

• qmcgaw/basedevcontainer⁠ todos

⁠License

This repository is under an MIT license⁠ unless indicated otherwise.