Development Environments

Why BoxLite for Development?

Developers often need Linux environments for:

• Running production-like environments locally
• Testing against specific Linux distributions
• Running Linux-only tools on macOS
• Isolating project dependencies

BoxLite provides these environments with minimal overhead and maximum speed.

BoxLite vs Docker Desktop

Quick Start

# Install BoxLite
pip install boxlite

# Run a command in an Ubuntu environment
boxlite run ubuntu:22.04 -- apt-get update

# Start an interactive shell
boxlite shell python:3.12

# Run your project's tests in isolation
boxlite run node:20 -- npm test

Use Cases

Local Development

Run your application in a production-like Linux environment while developing on macOS:

import boxlite

async def dev_environment():
    async with boxlite.SimpleBox(
        image="python:3.12",
        mounts=["./src:/app"],  # Mount source code
        ports=["8000:8000"]     # Expose dev server
    ) as box:
        await box.exec("pip", "install", "-r", "/app/requirements.txt")
        await box.exec("python", "/app/manage.py", "runserver")

CI/CD Pipelines

Run build and test steps in isolated environments:

• Each step runs in a fresh VM
• No state leakage between jobs
• Consistent environments across local and CI
• Easy parallelization

Build Environments

Build software with specific toolchains:

• Cross-compile for different architectures
• Use specific compiler versions
• Build reproducibly with pinned dependencies
• Isolate build artifacts

Testing Sandboxes

Run tests in isolated environments:

• Test against multiple Linux distributions
• Run integration tests with real services
• Test destructive operations safely
• Parallel test execution with isolation

OCI Image Compatibility

BoxLite runs standard OCI/Docker images. Use existing images from Docker Hub, GitHub Container Registry, or your private registry:

# Official images
boxlite run python:3.12-slim -- python --version
boxlite run node:20-alpine -- node --version
boxlite run golang:1.21 -- go version

# Custom images
boxlite run ghcr.io/myorg/myimage:latest -- ./run.sh