parallel-lifecycle-script-execution.md

Parallel Lifecycle Script Execution

This has now been implemented:

• Discussion issue: #83
• CLI PR: devcontainers/cli#172

Below is the original proposal.

Goal

Support executing multiple lifecycle scripts in parallel by providing them in object form.

Motivation

Dev containers support a single command for each of their lifecycle scripts. While serial execution of multiple commands can be achieved with ;, &&, etc. parallel is less straightforward and so deserves first-class support.

Spec changes

All lifecycle scripts will be extended to support object types. The key of the object will be a unique name for the command and the value will be the string or array command. Each command must exit successfully for the stage to be considered successful.

Each entry in the object will be run in parallel during that lifecycle step.

Example

{
  "postCreateCommand": {
    "server": "npm start",
    "db": ["mysql", "-u", "root", "-p", "my database"]
  }
}