Dev Environments in Amazon CodeCatalyst

The following sections outline how to create and manage your Dev Environment with CodeCatalyst using the AWS Cloud9 IDE.

• Creating a Dev Environment

• Opening Dev Environment settings

• Resuming a Dev Environment

• Deleting a Dev Environment

• Editing the repository devfile for a Dev Environment

• Cloning a repository

• Troubleshooting a Dev Environment

Creating a Dev Environment

You can create a Dev Environment in multiple ways:

• Create a Dev Environment in CodeCatalyst with a CodeCatalyst source repository from the Summary, Dev Environment, or Source repositories pages.

• Create an empty Dev Environment that's not connected to a source repository in CodeCatalyst from Dev Environments.

• Create a Dev Environment in your IDE of choice and clone a CodeCatalyst source repository into the Dev Environment.

You can create one Dev Environment for each branch and repository. A project can have multiple repositories. Your Dev Environments are only associated with your CodeCatalyst account, and can only be managed by your CodeCatalyst account. You can open the Dev Environment and work with it with any of the supported IDEs. After you choose a specific IDE, you can only open that Dev Environment with the chosen IDE. If you want to use a different IDE, you can either change the IDE by selecting the Dev Environment in the navigation bar and choosing Edit, or by creating a new Dev Environment. By default, Dev Environments are created with a 2-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of persistent storage.

For more information about how to create a Dev Environment in CodeCatalyst, see Creating a Dev Environment in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.

For information and steps on creating a Dev Environment in CodeCatalyst, see Creating a Dev Environment in the Amazon CodeCatalyst User Guide.

Note

You can now create Dev Environments with third-party source repositories. For information on linking a third-party source repository to a project within CodeCatalyst, see Linking a source repository in the Amazon CodeCatalyst User Guide.

Opening Dev Environment settings

After you create a Dev Environment in the CodeCatalyst console, you can view specific Dev Environment settings:

1. In the CodeCatalyst console, navigate to your Dev Environment through the AWS Cloud9 IDE.

2. Choose aws-explorer from the AWS Cloud9 sidebar.

3. In the Developer Tools navigation pane, expand CodeCatalyst and choose Open Settings to open the Dev Environment Settings view.

4. From the Dev Environment Settings view, the following sections contain options for your Dev Environment:

   • Alias: View and change the Alias that's assigned to your Dev Environment.

   • Status: View your current Dev Environment status, the project that it's been assigned to, and stop your Dev Environment.

   • Devfile: View the name and location of the Devfile for your Dev Environment. Open your Devfile by the choosing Open in Editor.

   • Compute Settings: Change the size and default Timeout Length for your Dev Environment.

Note

You can't change the amount of storage space that's assigned to your Dev Environment after it's created.

Note

When using Amazon CodeCatalyst AWS CLI from the terminal, you must ensure you set AWS_PROFILE=codecatalyst before running any CodeCatalyst commands.

Resuming a Dev Environment

Everything in the $HOME directory of a Dev Environment is stored persistently. You can stop working in a Dev Environment if necessary, and resume working in your Dev Environment at a later time. Suppose that a Dev Environment is left idle for more than the amount of time that was selected in the Timeout fields when the Dev Environment was created. In this case, the session automatically stops.

You can only resume a Dev Environment from CodeCatalyst. For more information about how to resume a Dev Environment, see Resuming a Dev Environment in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.

Note

Resuming a Dev Environment might take several minutes.

Deleting a Dev Environment

When you finished working on the content that's stored in your Dev Environment, you can delete that content. Before you delete a Dev Environment, make sure you commit and push your code changes to the original source repository. After you delete your Dev Environment, compute and storage billing for the Dev Environment ends.

You can only delete a Dev Environment from the Dev Environments page in CodeCatalyst. For more information about how to delete a Dev Environment, see Deleting a Dev Environment in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.

Editing the repository devfile for a Dev Environment

To change the configuration of a Dev Environment, edit the devfile. You can usedevfiles to standardize your development Dev Environment across your team. You can edit the devfile from the root of the source repository in CodeCatalyst. Alternatively, you can edit the devfile in a supported IDE. If you edit the devfile in a supported IDE, commit and push your changes to the source repository or create a pull request. That way, a team member can review and approve the devfile edits.

Note

You can only include public container images in your devfile.

Note

If dependencies are missing, some AWS Cloud9 IDE features might not work in custom devfile. It might require additional effort to make them work on some platforms other than Linux x64.

To edit the repository devfile for a Dev Environment in AWS Cloud9

1. In the CodeCatalyst console, navigate to your Dev Environment through the AWS Cloud9 IDE.

2. From the AWS Cloud9 sidebar, choose aws-explorer .

3. In the Developer Tools navigation pane, choose the CodeCatalyst toolkit menu.

4. Choose Open Devfile.

5. Edit the devfile, and save the file.

6. Choose Source Control, which is the Git extension from the menu side-bar.

7. In the Message text field, enter a message before staging changes.

8. To prepare for a commit, choose the Stage All Changes (+) icon.

9. To view Git commands, choose the menu icon that's next to the repository name.

10. Choose Commit and Push.

11. Choose Update Dev Environment from the AWS Toolkit menu.

    Choose Commit and Push. The updated devfile has been saved and the changes have been committed and pushed.

Note

Say that the Dev Environment you want to launch using a custom devfile doesn't work. This might be because the devfile isn't compatible with AWS Cloud9. To troubleshoot, review the devfile. If the issue persists, delete it and try creating a new one.

You can also edit the devfile for a Dev Environment through CodeCatalyst. For more information, see Configuring your Dev Environment in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.

Cloning a repository

To work effectively with multiple files, branches, and commits in source repositories, you can clone the source repository to your local computer. Then, use a Git client or an IDE to make changes. From CodeCatalyst, you can use the AWS Cloud9 IDE Gitextension in the same way as any other Git host provider and also by using the command line. To learn how to clone a third-party repository, see Initialize or clone a Git repository.

For more information about creating a Dev Environment from a source repository and cloning it with CodeCatalyst, see Source repository concepts in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.

Troubleshooting a Dev Environment

If you encounter issues with your Dev Environment, see Troubleshooting problems with Dev Environments in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.

Note

When using Amazon CodeCatalyst AWS CLI from the terminal, you must ensure you set AWS_PROFILE=codecatalyst before running any CodeCatalyst commands.

If you encounter issues with your Dev Environment, see Troubleshooting problems with Dev Environments in the Amazon CodeCatalyst guide.