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> For my classes I need to run what we call "PhD-ware" every now and then (technically advanced software that is great at doing one specific job but is mostly u

by msla 7y ago

> For my classes I need to run what we call "PhD-ware" every now and then (technically advanced software that is great at doing one specific job but is mostly unmaintained and requires a specific setup to work) and that's never going to be compatible with any security restriction. Sounds like a job for Docker, or possibly a hypervisor: Put the app in a container, put the specific files it needs to work on in the container, and the app lives entirely inside that container, whether it's a Docker image or a filesystem image with an OS or something in-between; there's no security implications because it can only touch what's already in the container with it. As a plus, the whole system (OS, configuration, application, and all) is now reified into a single container artifact you can ship around and just run. It won't rot, or at least it'll keep a lot longer (as long as the container technology keeps).

jeroenhd 7y ago
Ha, I wish I could just use docker for this. I'm sure I could find the exact arcane combination of outdated Java, unsupported C libraries and hardcoded paths and combine them into a Docker container, but in the end it's probably not worth the effort when I can set up a snapshot, configure the software and just run it. It's not day-to-day software so after 3 or 4 months I'll likely never use the software again. One tool I had to use would only work on old Linux kernels, proven to be working on Ubuntu 12.04. The guest tools in the VM provided were so old that I had to set up an older version of Virtualbox in order to get the system to run, which opened a whole can of worms in itself. This was on Ubuntu at the time, so luckily that it was just a matter of installing dependencies and trying to find compatible versions that didn't clash with normal system tools. Maybe Docker is able to run VirtualBox but just thinking about glueing Docker and a hypervisor together is giving me a headache. Nested KVM works these days, but who knows how that might affect a piece of software like this. Just for the weird legacy cruft that comes with some tools, I just want the option to mess up my system in order for something to work.

by msla 7y ago

jeroenhd 7y ago

Ha, I wish I could just use docker for this. I'm sure I could find the exact arcane combination of outdated Java, unsupported C libraries and hardcoded paths and combine them into a Docker container, but in the end it's probably not worth the effort when I can set up a snapshot, configure the software and just run it. It's not day-to-day software so after 3 or 4 months I'll likely never use the software again. One tool I had to use would only work on old Linux kernels, proven to be working on Ubuntu 12.04. The guest tools in the VM provided were so old that I had to set up an older version of Virtualbox in order to get the system to run, which opened a whole can of worms in itself. This was on Ubuntu at the time, so luckily that it was just a matter of installing dependencies and trying to find compatible versions that didn't clash with normal system tools. Maybe Docker is able to run VirtualBox but just thinking about glueing Docker and a hypervisor together is giving me a headache. Nested KVM works these days, but who knows how that might affect a piece of software like this. Just for the weird legacy cruft that comes with some tools, I just want the option to mess up my system in order for something to work.