Common Features¶
A container launched from any Jupyter Docker Stacks image runs a Jupyter Notebook server by default. The container does so by executing a start-notebook.sh
script. This script configures the internal container environment and then runs jupyter notebook
, passing it any command line arguments received.
This page describes the options supported by the startup script as well as how to bypass it to run alternative commands.
Notebook Options¶
You can pass Jupyter command line options to the start-notebook.sh
script when launching the container. For example, to secure the Notebook server with a custom password hashed using IPython.lib.passwd()
instead of the default token, you can run the following:
docker run -d -p 8888:8888 jupyter/base-notebook start-notebook.sh --NotebookApp.password='sha1:74ba40f8a388:c913541b7ee99d15d5ed31d4226bf7838f83a50e'
For example, to set the base URL of the notebook server, you can run the following:
docker run -d -p 8888:8888 jupyter/base-notebook start-notebook.sh --NotebookApp.base_url=/some/path
Docker Options¶
You may instruct the start-notebook.sh
script to customize the container environment before launching
the notebook server. You do so by passing arguments to the docker run
command.
-e NB_USER=jovyan
- Instructs the startup script to change the default container username fromjovyan
to the provided value. Causes the script to rename thejovyan
user home folder. For this option to take effect, you must run the container with--user root
, set the working directory-w /home/$NB_USER
and set the environment variable-e CHOWN_HOME=yes
(see below for detail). This feature is useful when mounting host volumes with specific home folder.-e NB_UID=1000
- Instructs the startup script to switch the numeric user ID of$NB_USER
to the given value. This feature is useful when mounting host volumes with specific owner permissions. For this option to take effect, you must run the container with--user root
. (The startup script willsu $NB_USER
after adjusting the user ID.) You might consider using modern Docker options--user
and--group-add
instead. See the last bullet below for details.-e NB_GID=100
- Instructs the startup script to change the primary group of$NB_USER
to$NB_GID
(the new group is added with a name of$NB_GROUP
if it is defined, otherwise the group is named$NB_USER
). This feature is useful when mounting host volumes with specific group permissions. For this option to take effect, you must run the container with--user root
. (The startup script willsu $NB_USER
after adjusting the group ID.) You might consider using modern Docker options--user
and--group-add
instead. See the last bullet below for details. The user is added to supplemental groupusers
(gid 100) in order to allow write access to the home directory and/opt/conda
. If you override the user/group logic, ensure the user stays in groupusers
if you want them to be able to modify files in the image.-e NB_GROUP=<name>
- The name used for$NB_GID
, which defaults to$NB_USER
. This is only used if$NB_GID
is specified and completely optional: there is only cosmetic effect.-e NB_UMASK=<umask>
- Configures Jupyter to use a different umask value from default, i.e.022
. For example, if setting umask to002
, new files will be readable and writable by group members instead of just writable by the owner. Wikipedia has a good article about umask. Feel free to read it in order to choose the value that better fits your needs. Default value should fit most situations. Note thatNB_UMASK
when set only applies to the Jupyter process itself - you cannot use it to set a umask for additional files created during run-hooks e.g. viapip
orconda
- if you need to set a umask for these you must setumask
for each command.-e CHOWN_HOME=yes
- Instructs the startup script to change the$NB_USER
home directory owner and group to the current value of$NB_UID
and$NB_GID
. This change will take effect even if the user home directory is mounted from the host using-v
as described below. The change is not applied recursively by default. You can change modify thechown
behavior by settingCHOWN_HOME_OPTS
(e.g.,-e CHOWN_HOME_OPTS='-R'
).-e CHOWN_EXTRA="<some dir>,<some other dir>"
- Instructs the startup script to change the owner and group of each comma-separated container directory to the current value of$NB_UID
and$NB_GID
. The change is not applied recursively by default. You can change modify thechown
behavior by settingCHOWN_EXTRA_OPTS
(e.g.,-e CHOWN_EXTRA_OPTS='-R'
).-e GRANT_SUDO=yes
- Instructs the startup script to grant theNB_USER
user passwordlesssudo
capability. You do not need this option to allow the user toconda
orpip
install additional packages. This option is useful, however, when you wish to give$NB_USER
the ability to install OS packages withapt
or modify other root-owned files in the container. For this option to take effect, you must run the container with--user root
. (Thestart-notebook.sh
script willsu $NB_USER
after adding$NB_USER
to sudoers.) You should only enablesudo
if you trust the user or if the container is running on an isolated host.-e GEN_CERT=yes
- Instructs the startup script to generates a self-signed SSL certificate and configure Jupyter Notebook to use it to accept encrypted HTTPS connections.-e JUPYTER_ENABLE_LAB=yes
- Instructs the startup script to runjupyter lab
instead of the defaultjupyter notebook
command. Useful in container orchestration environments where setting environment variables is easier than change command line parameters.-e RESTARTABLE=yes
- Runs Jupyter in a loop so that quitting Jupyter does not cause the container to exit. This may be useful when you need to install extensions that require restarting Jupyter.-v /some/host/folder/for/work:/home/jovyan/work
- Mounts a host machine directory as folder in the container. Useful when you want to preserve notebooks and other work even after the container is destroyed. You must grant the within-container notebook user or group (NB_UID
orNB_GID
) write access to the host directory (e.g.,sudo chown 1000 /some/host/folder/for/work
).--user 5000 --group-add users
- Launches the container with a specific user ID and adds that user to theusers
group so that it can modify files in the default home directory and/opt/conda
. You can use these arguments as alternatives to setting$NB_UID
and$NB_GID
.
Startup Hooks¶
You can further customize the container environment by adding shell scripts (*.sh
) to be sourced
or executables (chmod +x
) to be run to the paths below:
/usr/local/bin/start-notebook.d/
- handled before any of the standard options noted above are applied/usr/local/bin/before-notebook.d/
- handled after all of the standard options noted above are applied and just before the notebook server launches
See the run-hooks
function in the jupyter/base-notebook start.sh
script for execution details.
SSL Certificates¶
You may mount SSL key and certificate files into a container and configure Jupyter Notebook to use them to accept HTTPS connections. For example, to mount a host folder containing a notebook.key
and notebook.crt
and use them, you might run the following:
docker run -d -p 8888:8888 \
-v /some/host/folder:/etc/ssl/notebook \
jupyter/base-notebook start-notebook.sh \
--NotebookApp.keyfile=/etc/ssl/notebook/notebook.key
--NotebookApp.certfile=/etc/ssl/notebook/notebook.crt
Alternatively, you may mount a single PEM file containing both the key and certificate. For example:
docker run -d -p 8888:8888 \
-v /some/host/folder/notebook.pem:/etc/ssl/notebook.pem \
jupyter/base-notebook start-notebook.sh \
--NotebookApp.certfile=/etc/ssl/notebook.pem
In either case, Jupyter Notebook expects the key and certificate to be a base64 encoded text file. The certificate file or PEM may contain one or more certificates (e.g., server, intermediate, and root).
For additional information about using SSL, see the following:
- The docker-stacks/examples for information about how to use Let’s Encrypt certificates when you run these stacks on a publicly visible domain.
- The jupyter_notebook_config.py file for how this Docker image generates a self-signed certificate.
- The Jupyter Notebook documentation for best practices about securing a public notebook server in general.
Alternative Commands¶
start.sh¶
The start-notebook.sh
script actually inherits most of its option handling capability from a more generic start.sh
script. The start.sh
script supports all of the features described above, but allows you to specify an arbitrary command to execute. For example, to run the text-based ipython
console in a container, do the following:
docker run -it --rm jupyter/base-notebook start.sh ipython
Or, to run JupyterLab instead of the classic notebook, run the following:
docker run -it --rm -p 8888:8888 jupyter/base-notebook start.sh jupyter lab
This script is particularly useful when you derive a new Dockerfile from this image and install additional Jupyter applications with subcommands like jupyter console
, jupyter kernelgateway
, etc.
Others¶
You can bypass the provided scripts and specify an arbitrary start command. If you do, keep in mind that features supported by the start.sh
script and its kin will not function (e.g., GRANT_SUDO
).
Conda Environments¶
The default Python 3.x Conda environment resides in /opt/conda
. The /opt/conda/bin
directory is part of the default jovyan
user’s $PATH
. That directory is also whitelisted for use in sudo
commands by the start.sh
script.
The jovyan
user has full read/write access to the /opt/conda
directory. You can use either conda
, mamba
or pip
to install new packages without any additional permissions.
# install a package into the default (python 3.x) environment
pip install some-package
conda install some-package
mamba install some-package
Using alternative channels¶
Conda is configured by default to use only the conda-forge
channel.
However, alternative channels can be used either one shot by overwriting the default channel in the installation command or by configuring conda
to use different channels.
The examples below show how to use the anaconda default channels instead of conda-forge
to install packages.
# using defaults channels to install a package
conda install --channel defaults humanize
# configure conda to add default channels at the top of the list
conda config --system --prepend channels defaults
# install a package
conda install humanize