Robot Framework in a Official Python 3 and Debian Buster based (slim) Docker container.

1. To run tests in an environment that is well isolated from the host
2. To get started fast when prototyping/developing own Robot Framework libraries
3. To be able to take Robot Framework into use where sudo is not available

Download rfdocker and Dockerfile to where your atest/ are:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asyrjasalo/rfdocker/master/rfdocker -o rfdocker || \
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asyrjasalo/rfdocker/master/rfdocker -O rfdocker && \
chmod +x rfdocker && \
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asyrjasalo/rfdocker/master/Dockerfile -o Dockerfile || \
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asyrjasalo/rfdocker/master/Dockerfile -O Dockerfile && \
echo "Done."

Then:

./rfdocker

The Robot Framework output files are put in the same directory under results/.

Any arguments are forwarded to robot inside the container, e.g. the output directory can be renamed with:

./rfdocker --outputdir results/$(date +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) atest/

Put the external libraries to requirements.txt and uncomment the lines in Dockerfile. The packages are automatically installed inside the container whenever rfdocker is ran.

You can pass variable BUILD_ARGS to rfdocker to customize docker build arguments, and variable BUILD_DIR to override the path of the directory where Dockerfile and requirements.txt are.

Similarly, you can pass variable RUN_ARGS to rfdocker to e.g. define additional docker run arguments, e.g. to change the default volume mappings or networking.

The rfdocker images are hosted in Docker Hub, robotframework/rfdocker. The version numbers correspond to the Robot Framework releases.

Since Robot Framework version 3.0.4, Python 2 image is unmaintained.

The images are built with docker/Dockerfile.slimbuster. The image is smoke tested using rfdocker in the repo itself.

Robot Framework version is read from file docker/rf_version, and Python version from file docker/python_version.

To build a new base image:

docker/build_and_test_image

To push the image to your private Docker registry (which you should always do):

REGISTRY_URL=https://your.private.registry/username \
  docker/tag_and_push_image

For pushing to public Docker Hub, you may want to use:

REGISTRY_URL=username \
  docker/tag_and_push_image

Remember to docker login for the script to push to a Docker registry.

Run shellcheck for changes in scripts:

shellcheck rfdocker docker/build_and_test_image docker/tag_and_push_image

I could appreciate some help to have something similar working on Windows.