Dory let's you forget about IP addresses and port numbers while you are developing you application. Through the magic of local DNS services and nginx reverse proxy, you can access your app at the domain of your choosing. For example, http://myapp.docker or http://this-is-a-really-long-name.but-its-cool-cause-i-like-it

Dory wraps codekitchen/dinghy-http-proxy and makes it easily available for use on Linux. This way you can work comfortably side by side on docker/docker-compose with your colleagues who run OS X.

Specifically, dory will:

• Fire up the nginx proxy in a daemonized docker container for you
• Configure and start a local dnsmasq to forward DNS queries for your local domain to the nginx proxy
• Configure your local DNS resolver to point to the local dnsmasq

gem install dory

Dory has a small selection of commands that are hopefully intuitive. To customize and fine-tune dory's behavior, it can be configured with a yaml config file.

Commands:
  dory config-file     # Write a default config file
  dory down            # Stop all dory services
  dory help [COMMAND]  # Describe available commands or one specific command
  dory restart         # Stop and restart all dory services
  dory status          # Report status of the dory services
  dory up              # Bring up dory services (nginx-proxy, dnsmasq, resolv)
  dory version         # Check current installed version of dory

Options:
  v, [--verbose], [--no-verbose]  

Default config file which should be placed at ~/.dory.yml (can be generated with dory config-file):

---
dory:
  # Be careful if you change the settings of some of
  # these services.  They may not talk to each other
  # if you change IP Addresses.
  # For example, resolv expects a nameserver listening at
  # the specified address.  dnsmasq normally does this,
  # but if you disable dnsmasq, it
  # will make your system look for a name server that
  # doesn't exist.
  dnsmasq:
    enabled: true
    domains:              # array of domains that will be resolved to the specified address
      - domain: docker     # you can set '#' for a wilcard
        address: 127.0.0.1 # return for queries against the domain
      - domain: dev
        address: 127.0.0.1
    container_name: dory_dnsmasq
  nginx_proxy:
    enabled: true
    container_name: dory_dinghy_http_proxy
    https_enabled: true
    ssl_certs_dir: ''  # leave as empty string to use default certs
  resolv:
    enabled: true
    nameserver: 127.0.0.1

If you run the dory config-file command and have an existing config file, dory will offer you the option of upgrading. This will preserve your settings and migrate you to the latest format. You can skip the prompt by passing the --upgrade flag

dory config-file --upgrade

Usage:
  dory config-file

Options:
  u, [--upgrade], [--no-upgrade]
  f, [--force]

Description:
  Writes a dory config file to /home/ben/.dory.yml containing the default
  settings. This can then be configured as preferred.

To make your container(s) accessible through a domain, all you have to do is set a VIRTUAL_HOST environment variable in your container. That's it! (Well, and you have to have dory running with the correct domain set in ~/.dory.yml). You can also set VIRTUAL_PORT to set the port to something other than 80.

Many people do this in their docker-compose.yml file:

version: '2'
services:
  web:
    build: .
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=myapp.docker
  redis:
    image: redis
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=redis.docker
      - VIRTUAL_PORT=6379
  db:
    image: postgres
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=postgres.docker
      - VIRTUAL_PORT=5432

In the example above, you can hit the web container from the host machine with http://myapp.docker, and the redis container with tcp://redis.docker. This does not affect any links on the internal docker network.

You could also just run a docker container with the environment variable like this:

docker run -e VIRTUAL_HOST=myapp.docker  ...

Halp the dnsmasq container is having issues starting!

Make sure you aren't already running a dnsmasq service (or some other service) on port 53. Because the Linux resolv file doesn't have support for port numbers, we have to run on host port 53. To make matters fun, some distros (such as those shipping with NetworkManager) will run a dnsmasq on 53 to perform local DNS caching. This is nice, but it will conflict with Dory's dnsmasq container. You will probably want to disable it.

If using Network Manager, try commenting out dns=dnsmasq in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf. Then restart NetworkManager: sudo service network-manager restart or sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

No. Well, maybe sort of, but not really. Dinghy has a lot of responsibilities on OS X, most of which are not necessary on Linux since docker runs natively. Something it does that can benefit linux users however, is the setup and management of an nginx reverse HTTP proxy. Using full dinghy on Linux for local development doesn't really make sense to me, but using a reverse proxy does. Furthermore, if you work with other devs who run Dinghy on OS X, you will have to massage your (docker-compose)[https://docs.docker.com/compose/] files to avoid conflicting. By using dory, you can safely use the same VIRTUAL_HOST setup without conflict. And because dory uses dinghy-http-proxy under the hood, you will be as compatible as possible.

Generally speaking, IMHO, no. The native experience is superior. However, for some reason maybe you'd prefer to not have docker on your local machine? Maybe you'd rather run it in a VM? If that describes you, then maybe you want full dinghy.

I am intrigued at the possibilities of using dinghy on Linux to drive a cloud-based docker engine. For that, stay tuned.

That was actually my first approach, and I considered it quite a bit. As I went through the process in my head tho, and reviewed the dinghy source code, I decided that it was just too heavy to really fit the need I had. I love being able to run docker natively, and I revere the Arch Way. Dinghy just seemed like too big of a hammer for this problem (the problem being that I work on Linux, but my colleagues use OS X/Dinghy for docker development).

You do this too!? Well fine hacker, it's your lucky day because dory has you covered. You can run the nginx proxy on the cloud server and the dnsmasq/resolver locally. Here's how:

• Install dory on both client and server:

gem install dory

• Gen a base config file:

dory config-file

• On the local machine, disable the nginx-proxy, and set the dnsmasq address to that of your cloud server:

  dnsmasq:
    enabled: true
    domain: docker      # domain that will be listened for
    address: <cloud-server-ip>  # address returned for queries against domain
    container_name: dory_dnsmasq
  nginx_proxy:
    enabled: false
    container_name: dory_dinghy_http_proxy

• On the server, disable resolv and dnsmasq:

  dnsmasq:
    enabled: false
    domain: docker      # domain that will be listened for
    address: 127.0.0.1  # address returned for queries against domain
    container_name: dory_dnsmasq
  resolv:
    enabled: false
    nameserver: 127.0.0.1

• Profit!

• jwilder/nginx-proxy (Indirectly but worthy of mention)
• codekitchen/dinghy-http-proxy
• andyshinn/dnsmasq
• freedomben/dory-dnsmasq
• erikhuda/thor