Eclipse Che setup - on a server with Docker

If you take a look at the official site you'll see the installation is super easy - just a single line:

docker run --rm -t -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock eclipse/che start

Of course it is assumed that you have Docker 1.8 or later installed.

If you run it in your desktop or laptop, you can start using it. Just go to "http://localhost:8080" and create a workspace for your development:

Since I am going to install it on my HP N54L server (ArchLinux), I need to put from environment variables:

docker run --rm -t -e CHE_HOST_IP= -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock  eclipse/che  stop

Then I can go ot "http://:8080" to enjoy this web IDE.

Another thing I discover is that if you run "docker ps" you will see:

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                                                       COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                                                                                                                       NAMES
6b5cf5c1c0e9        eclipse-che/workspacef2v2k7ltal4gbsxp_machineph3hokyhknjhxa90_che_default   "/home/user/entrypoin"   42 hours ago        Up 42 hours         0.0.0.0:32817->22/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32816->4401/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32815->4403/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32814->4411/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32813->8080/tcp   workspacef2v2k7ltal4gbsxp_machineph3hokyhknjhxa90_che_default
ac63c449f4b8        codenvy/che-server:latest                                                   "/home/user/che/bin/c"   42 hours ago        Up 42 hours         8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp                                                                                            che-server

Just remember do not stop it by running "docker stop che-server". I did once and when I start the che-server my previous setting, including workpsaces and projects were gone.

Instead, we should run 

docker run --rm -t -e CHE_HOST_IP= -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock  eclipse/che  stop

Or simply download the start/stop script from eclipse.org:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eclipse/che/master/che.sh > che

then run
 ./che start / stop / restart

for my case I need to set the environemnt:

CHE_HOST_IP=je54 ./che  start

CHE_HOST_IP=je54 ./che  stop

Eclipse Che (coding within a browser)

I am not a professional programmer or developer. But I do need to code time to time. 90% of my coding is done with "vi". It's very powerful if the project is small. I also tried atom.io or sublime text, but they are just too powerful that I don't want to invest too much time. Then I found Eclipse Che.

Eclipse was a heavy IDE and I was using it 10 years ago, when I was still a big fans of Java. I put it down for years but when i visit the site again I found there is an interesting project: Eclispe Che - http://eclipse.org/che . Unlike Atom or Sublime Text, it's not a editor or IDE but a development infrastructure. It's not necessary to install it in your PC or laptop, but another server or even in the cloud. Even you install it in your PC you just install a docker container and use a browser to work:

As you can see everything is in docker. For my case I can put it in my HP N54L and then I can code with any computers. The installation is pretty simple, I will show it in the next post.