8 ms·

Show HN: Nodebook – Multi-Lang Web REPL on Docker

82 points by netgusto 7y ago

netgusto 7y ago
I came up with Nodebook while training for coding interviews. I wrote this because I wanted to work in the kind of environment used for these interviews, namely an editor in a browser, and I needed a quick way to browse and run my snippets when preparing. That, and procrastination. There's also the possibility to watch code and run it in the shell directly, without browser UI. I use it these days when I need to do quick experiments or POC. I think it can be of many other uses.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  It looks nice, thanks for sharing it.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  Do in fact mention making this when you interview.
- cholantesh 7y ago
  Very cool; just curious as I am trying to implement something similar in a current project and I'm not the best frontend developer: would there be any caveats associated with throwing something like this in an iFrame?
mattsfrey 7y ago
It would go a long way to package this such that somebody on a mac can just download it and run, or install with brew. Also after disabling security, chmoding +x, and attempting several patterns on the command line I could not get this to run, each time spitting various errors i.e. "Could not find notebooks in .: Error while looking for notebooks: skip this directory", "Could not find notebooks in /Users/mfrey: Error while looking for notebooks: open /Users/mfrey/Library/Application Support/CallHistoryDB: operation not permitted" etc.. maybe I'm just an idiot but at this point of dysfunction in a program I'm experimenting with for kicks, my capacity to continue futzing with it is exhausted, just FYI.
- netgusto 7y ago
  Hey! Thanks for the feedback. I'd need to sign the binary for mac for it to run without system security flag. Or indeed, brew; I'll think about it. As for the other problems you mentionned, I agree; the software expects an empty directory, or one that contains "notebooks" already. I should maybe safeguard against it being run on arbitrary paths.
- talkingtab 7y ago
  As a long time mac user, I suggest getting access to a Linux machine and even learning how to use it if necessary. If you use the mac terminal its not all that hard. Options are: - get a DigitalOcean or other cheap VPN. $5 or less/month with easy ssh access. Be sure to set up ufw just for fun. - have an old mac? install Ubuntu 19.10 and be surprised at how fast and usable it is. My 2011 Macbook pro is amazing with an external monitor. - buy a cheap machine. I would suggest a Pi 4 with 4GB and have one, but since the architecture is ARM it sometimes is a hassle. Maybe someone has a suggestion for a low cost linux server box. edit: I forgot the main point- if you want to play around with a lot of cool stuff, like this, much of it is linux by default so having a linux box is perhaps a good long term solution. I use brew, but for me these are better solutions.
  - em500 7y ago
    Or install multipass, which installs ubuntu containers inside a ubuntu kvm on your Mac: https://multipass.run/ https://multipass.run/
asah 7y ago
I'm curious about security... On one hand it's running inside a container? OTOH, there's no key/password required for clients to connect i.e. any local software can connect? For remote access, perhaps an SSH tunnel?
- netgusto 7y ago
  The api listens on 127.0.0.1 by default; so yes, local software can connect (see [1]). File pathes for read/writes and execution are not imperatively ordered by the client, but done declaratively based on the notebook ID. When the toolschains are in docker, the code runs in disposable containers. It would be possible to add creds (for instance, with creds stored in ~/.nodebook.conf); do you think it's mandatory? The cli mode (--cli) does not expose a port, but watches notebooks and outputs them in the terminal (works nicely with $YOUR_EDITOR) --edit-- I guess running this on a remote server through SSH tunnel would workyes, but I think it's safer and easier to version control the notebooks and run them locally. [1] https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook#%EF%B8%8F-a-bit-of-warning-%EF%B8%8F https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook#%EF%B8%8F-a-bit-of-warn...
  - mbreese 7y ago
    One mechanism I’ve seen (Jupyter) is to print out a token when the listening service (Webserver) starts. Then this is the credential needed to login to the web GUI. The token is randomly generated at runtime and unique to each time the server restarts. It would be expected that you’re running this on a computer you already control access to (remote server that you access with an SSH tunnel or a personal workstation). In this case, the token approach is a nice medium between full user accounts and ease of use while still providing some security.
    - netgusto 7y ago
      Oh yes I see, it’s indeed a nice in between. I will do that, like it! Thank you.
fenollp 7y ago
From a quick look this looks like a subset of what https://repl.it/ https://repl.it/ provides (which is fine!). Any features / wild ideas you feel deserve more attention than a quick look?
- netgusto 7y ago
  It does indeed look like repl.it! I'd say the main feature is owning the code you write (on your filesystem) which allows your scm on top of it. Also, the cli mode (watch and run), which does not expose a web ui, and is nice in combination with tmux and vim. If I ever get the chance to do it: * Markdown file support * Integration in vscode as a code runner * Use Monaco (potentially with code insights) instead of Code Mirror
joshstrange 7y ago
Hmm, this is very interesting. Currently I use CodeRunner on my mac to do this kind of one-offs but I rarely save them. It's mainly an easily way for me to test out a theory on how some code will behave in an isolated environment. I would be interested in this if it could run itself inside a docker container as well so I could easily throw it on my NAS. I guess I could just run it in a VM but...
- netgusto 7y ago
  > if it could run itself inside a docker container It could be done by running the snippet containers in the same docker host as the one running nodebook (by exposing the host's docker socket to the nodebook container). Is this what you have in mind?
  - joshstrange 7y ago
    Yes, I was thinking docker-in-docker was probably the answer to that. Or a single docker container with all runtimes installed in it so you didn't have to deal with the DiD overhead. Hell, I could probably just throw it into a docker with just node/php/java (since that is my main use-case) and call it a day.

82 points by netgusto 7y ago

I came up with Nodebook while training for coding interviews. I wrote this because I wanted to work in the kind of environment used for these interviews, namely an editor in a browser, and I needed a quick way to browse and run my snippets when preparing. That, and procrastination. There's also the possibility to watch code and run it in the shell directly, without browser UI. I use it these days when I need to do quick experiments or POC. I think it can be of many other uses.

pjmlp 7y ago
It looks nice, thanks for sharing it.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
Do in fact mention making this when you interview.
cholantesh 7y ago
Very cool; just curious as I am trying to implement something similar in a current project and I'm not the best frontend developer: would there be any caveats associated with throwing something like this in an iFrame?

mattsfrey 7y ago

It would go a long way to package this such that somebody on a mac can just download it and run, or install with brew. Also after disabling security, chmoding +x, and attempting several patterns on the command line I could not get this to run, each time spitting various errors i.e. "Could not find notebooks in .: Error while looking for notebooks: skip this directory", "Could not find notebooks in /Users/mfrey: Error while looking for notebooks: open /Users/mfrey/Library/Application Support/CallHistoryDB: operation not permitted" etc.. maybe I'm just an idiot but at this point of dysfunction in a program I'm experimenting with for kicks, my capacity to continue futzing with it is exhausted, just FYI.

netgusto 7y ago
Hey! Thanks for the feedback. I'd need to sign the binary for mac for it to run without system security flag. Or indeed, brew; I'll think about it. As for the other problems you mentionned, I agree; the software expects an empty directory, or one that contains "notebooks" already. I should maybe safeguard against it being run on arbitrary paths.
talkingtab 7y ago
As a long time mac user, I suggest getting access to a Linux machine and even learning how to use it if necessary. If you use the mac terminal its not all that hard. Options are: - get a DigitalOcean or other cheap VPN. $5 or less/month with easy ssh access. Be sure to set up ufw just for fun. - have an old mac? install Ubuntu 19.10 and be surprised at how fast and usable it is. My 2011 Macbook pro is amazing with an external monitor. - buy a cheap machine. I would suggest a Pi 4 with 4GB and have one, but since the architecture is ARM it sometimes is a hassle. Maybe someone has a suggestion for a low cost linux server box. edit: I forgot the main point- if you want to play around with a lot of cool stuff, like this, much of it is linux by default so having a linux box is perhaps a good long term solution. I use brew, but for me these are better solutions.
- em500 7y ago
  Or install multipass, which installs ubuntu containers inside a ubuntu kvm on your Mac: https://multipass.run/ https://multipass.run/

asah 7y ago

I'm curious about security... On one hand it's running inside a container? OTOH, there's no key/password required for clients to connect i.e. any local software can connect? For remote access, perhaps an SSH tunnel?

netgusto 7y ago
The api listens on 127.0.0.1 by default; so yes, local software can connect (see [1]). File pathes for read/writes and execution are not imperatively ordered by the client, but done declaratively based on the notebook ID. When the toolschains are in docker, the code runs in disposable containers. It would be possible to add creds (for instance, with creds stored in ~/.nodebook.conf); do you think it's mandatory? The cli mode (--cli) does not expose a port, but watches notebooks and outputs them in the terminal (works nicely with $YOUR_EDITOR) --edit-- I guess running this on a remote server through SSH tunnel would workyes, but I think it's safer and easier to version control the notebooks and run them locally. [1] https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook#%EF%B8%8F-a-bit-of-warning-%EF%B8%8F https://github.com/netgusto/nodebook#%EF%B8%8F-a-bit-of-warn...
- mbreese 7y ago
  One mechanism I’ve seen (Jupyter) is to print out a token when the listening service (Webserver) starts. Then this is the credential needed to login to the web GUI. The token is randomly generated at runtime and unique to each time the server restarts. It would be expected that you’re running this on a computer you already control access to (remote server that you access with an SSH tunnel or a personal workstation). In this case, the token approach is a nice medium between full user accounts and ease of use while still providing some security.
  - netgusto 7y ago
    Oh yes I see, it’s indeed a nice in between. I will do that, like it! Thank you.

fenollp 7y ago

From a quick look this looks like a subset of what https://repl.it/ https://repl.it/ provides (which is fine!). Any features / wild ideas you feel deserve more attention than a quick look?

netgusto 7y ago
It does indeed look like repl.it! I'd say the main feature is owning the code you write (on your filesystem) which allows your scm on top of it. Also, the cli mode (watch and run), which does not expose a web ui, and is nice in combination with tmux and vim. If I ever get the chance to do it: * Markdown file support * Integration in vscode as a code runner * Use Monaco (potentially with code insights) instead of Code Mirror

joshstrange 7y ago

Hmm, this is very interesting. Currently I use CodeRunner on my mac to do this kind of one-offs but I rarely save them. It's mainly an easily way for me to test out a theory on how some code will behave in an isolated environment. I would be interested in this if it could run itself inside a docker container as well so I could easily throw it on my NAS. I guess I could just run it in a VM but...

netgusto 7y ago
> if it could run itself inside a docker container It could be done by running the snippet containers in the same docker host as the one running nodebook (by exposing the host's docker socket to the nodebook container). Is this what you have in mind?
- joshstrange 7y ago
  Yes, I was thinking docker-in-docker was probably the answer to that. Or a single docker container with all runtimes installed in it so you didn't have to deal with the DiD overhead. Hell, I could probably just throw it into a docker with just node/php/java (since that is my main use-case) and call it a day.