Use devcontainer.json in subdirectories in monorepo

[eitsupi]

We may want to work with different Dev Containers for each subdirectory. (e.g., a monorepo like https://github.com/apache/arrow)
In such a case, VSCode can recognize any devcontainer.json by opening a subdirectory, but Codespaces only recognizes those in the root directory.

I am wondering if it is possible to put a new type configuration file (such as .devcontainer-paths.json?) in the root directory with the paths to each devcontainer.json so that the tool is aware of each container definition.

[samruddhikhandale]

Codespaces supports monorepo and multi-repo scenarios. Have you taken a look at this blog post ?

If yes, then are you looking forward to another specification for mono repo? would like to clarify my understanding.

[Chuxel]

@samruddhikhandale - I think the ask here is not to have to put everything under .devcontainer which is at the root. ("but Codespaces only recognizes those in the root directory" being the notable piece).

Instead the request is to allow a .devcontainer folder or .devcontainer.json file to be in any sub-folder.

The VS Code Dev Containers extension is behind on implementing everything under .devcontainer at the root, but this is different.

[eitsupi]

Codespaces supports monorepo and multi-repo scenarios. Have you taken a look at this blog post ?

Thanks for pointing this out.
Sorry, I wasn't aware that this structure was defined in the spec!

spec/docs/specs/devcontainer-reference.md

Lines 19 to 21 in 9552d0f

	- .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
	- .devcontainer.json
	- .devcontainer/**/devcontainer.json (where ** is a sub-folder)

After trying it out, I think this behavior of Codespaces is sufficiently attractive.

But VSCode Dev Container doesn't seem to recognize .devcontainer/**/devcontainer.json, so I guess we need to place .devcontainer.json in a subdirectory like **/ for now and create a container from that directory?
It would be great if VSCode DevContainer supported .devcontainer/**/devcontainer.json and users can choose these.
Should I create an issue on https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release?

[Chuxel]

It would be great if VSCode DevContainer supported .devcontainer/**/devcontainer.json and users can choose these.
Should I create an issue on https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release?

@chrmarti Raised microsoft/vscode-remote-release#7548 but there's not much of a description, so can add that. You can upvote there!

[Chuxel]

@eitsupi Would you like to keep this open for using any sub-folder or do you think we should close as a dupe of getting this into the Dev Containers extension (microsoft/vscode-remote-release#7548)?

[eitsupi]

Closing in favor of .devcontainer/**/devcontainer.json pattern.
Thanks.