Populate home dir if it is empty

[benz0li]

What docker images this feature is applicable to?

jupyter/base-notebook

What changes do you propose?

Populate home dir if it is empty.

How does this change will affect users?

If a user mounts to /home/{raw_username} it will be populated from /home/jovyan on initial startup.
ℹ️ NB_USER set to {raw_username}; the unescaped username (e.g. from JupyterHub).

[benz0li]

diff --git a/base-notebook/start.sh b/base-notebook/start.sh
index 05c1037..9e59ab2 100644
--- a/base-notebook/start.sh
+++ b/base-notebook/start.sh
@@ -123,6 +123,15 @@ if [ "$(id -u)" == 0 ] ; then
                     exit 1
                 fi
             fi
+        # The home directory could be bind mounted. Populate it if it is empty
+        elif [[ "$(ls -A "/home/${NB_USER}" 2> /dev/null)" == "" ]]; then
+            _log "Populating home dir /home/${NB_USER}..."
+            if cp -a /home/jovyan/. "/home/${NB_USER}/"; then
+                _log "Success!"
+            else
+                _log "Failed to copy data from /home/jovyan to /home/${NB_USER}!"
+                exit 1
+            fi
         fi
         # Ensure the current working directory is updated to the new path
         if [[ "${PWD}/" == "/home/jovyan/"* ]]; then

|| ln -s /home/jovyan "/home/${NB_USER}" is obsolete, because the home dir is copied [and not moved] now.

[benz0li]

In my custom JupyterLab docker stack a duplicate of /home/jovyan is kept at /var/tmp/jovyan. If a user bind mounts to /home/jovyan itself and NB_USER is set to jovyan, the home dir is pre-populated by the following script:

/usr/local/bin/start-notebook.d/populate.sh:

#!/bin/bash

set -e

if [[ "$(ls -A "/home/jovyan" 2> /dev/null)" == "" ]]; then
    cp -a /var/tmp/jovyan/. /home/jovyan
fi

[maresb]

Which are the files here that you care about? Is your home directory totally empty, like missing .bashrc? Or is it the work folder? I'm trying to understand what test cases we should write.

[benz0li]

Yes, the home directory is entirely empty if bind mounted to /home/{raw_username}. As it exists, ! -e "/home/${NB_USER}" is FALSE, thus nothing is copied from /home/jovyan/ to /home/${NB_USER}.
ℹ️ NB_USER set to {raw_username}

It's the whole content of /home/jovyan/ I care about.

[benz0li]

For jupyters base-notebook this would take care about

-rw-rw-r-- 1 jovyan users  220 Feb 25  2020 .bash_logout
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jovyan users 3823 Nov  8 05:07 .bashrc
drwsrwsr-x 2 jovyan users 4096 Nov  8 05:09 .cache
drwsrwsr-x 1 jovyan users 4096 Nov  8 05:08 .conda
drwsrws--- 3 jovyan users 4096 Nov  8 05:09 .config
drwsrws--- 2 jovyan users 4096 Nov  8 05:09 .jupyter
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jovyan users  807 Feb 25  2020 .profile
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jovyan users  227 Nov  8 05:07 .wget-hsts
drwsrwsr-x 2 jovyan users 4096 Nov  8 05:07 work

For my custom jupyterlab image this would take care about

-rw-r--r--  1 jovyan users  220 Aug  4 20:25 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 jovyan users 3768 Nov  5 10:50 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x  3 jovyan users 4096 Nov  5 10:50 .local
drwxr-xr-x 12 jovyan users 4096 Nov  5 10:50 .oh-my-zsh
-rw-r--r--  1 jovyan users  807 Aug  4 20:25 .profile
-rw-r--r--  1 jovyan users 4219 Nov  5 10:50 .zshrc

Only for the initial/first startup and if the mounted home directory at /home/${NB_USER} is empty.

[maresb]

@consideRatio the merge seems to have unintentionally caused this issue to be closed prematurely. (Probably I shouldn't have had "close #1478" in my description! 😆)

[benz0li]

Or is it the work folder?

I find the suggestion of -v "${PWD}":/home/jovyan/work at https://github.com/jupyter/docker-stacks#quick-start > 'Example 2' rather odd, because this does not preserve dotfiles (user-specific application configuration) - e.g. ~/.local, ~/.config, etc.

That's one of many reasons why I'm building my own Jupyter docker stack incorporating the changes listed above and mounting the entire home directory.

[benz0li]

Closing due to inactivity.