gitpod-io / gitpod-io/gitpod

Please support vanilla `ubuntu` by automatically installing `git` and `sudo` when they're missing

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#9,171 7 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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meta: never-stale team: workspace type: feature request
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe

If you use the following custom Dockerfile with gitpod:

FROM ubuntu

You're going to have a bad time, because it doesn't include git, and you cannot install it yourself without also having sudo. Thus, you won't be able to export any work from your workspace (no git in the Terminal, and the Git UI in VS Code won't work).

Describe the behaviour you'd like

We already automatically create a gitpod user with UID 33333 when there isn't one, and I believe we also automatically install a credential-helper for Git.

I believe we should also automatically install git and sudo, in order to support a basic development experience when you provide only a minimal Docker image:

FROM ubuntu

Describe alternatives you've considered

Additional context

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Reproduce the issue with a Dockerfile containing only FROM ubuntu, then inspect the existing workspace initialization that creates the gitpod user and installs the Git credential helper. The change is complete when a vanilla Ubuntu workspace has both git and sudo, allowing terminal Git use and the VS Code Git UI without extra image setup.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker, dockerfile, git, ubuntu
Domain
developer-experience, devops, infrastructure
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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