delphi4docker

Step-by-step guide to create your own Docker container to compile Delphi projects

Host Delphi on a Docker container and compile Delphi projects for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS (Not Tested) from the container

delphi4dockercompile.mp4

Requirements

Valid Embarcadero licence for Delphi
A fresh Windows 10 virtual machine
A fresh Ubuntu 20.04 virtual machine
Consider having 150GB HDD space available for each VM

Caveats

Use the same user name in your VMs as your docker container. I strongly recomend you to use root as user
- In your Windows machine, create a user called root
- In your Ubuntu machine, run everything as root
- When running your container, set user to root
If you’re using Mac and Parallels for managing VMs, use the option “Isolate Windows from Mac”
Tested using Delphi 11.3 only. For the previous version of Delphi, it might not work because Eclipse Adoptium folder doesn’t exist

Setting up for Windows VM

Install Delphi as a regular installation (Uncheck the option “Install for all users” and use the default destination folder)

Install all the required getit packages and SDKs
Install all available patches
Remove everything that is IDE only related to size down your bundle
Clone or download the repository: https://github.com/lmbelo/delphi4docker
Launch the app > delphi4dockersrv.exe app and use the Pack option
- If you didn’t use the default options during the Delphi installation process, please set up accordingly. Whereas, if you used default options, you can go ahead and use the Pack option

It will now pack the Delphi environment and bundle it up to a single file and make it ready to send to the Ubuntu host machine
When done, a message will display

Setting up for Ubuntu 20.04 VM

Installing WINE

Note: You can simplify this process running the setup_wine.sh script

Verify 64-bit architecture. The following command should respond with "amd64"

$ dpkg --print-architecture

See if 32-bit architecture is installed. The following command should respond with "i386"

$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures

If "i386" is not displayed, execute the following

$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Recheck with.

$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures

Download and add the WineHQ repository key

$ sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
$ sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

Download the WineHQ sources file

$ sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/focal/winehq-focal.sources

Update the package database

$ sudo apt update

Install Wine

$ sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

When installing wine, as you get this screen, click on “Cancel” button

Verify the installation succeeded

$ wine --version

Simple tests
- To make sure wine is working
- Display a simple clock

$ wine clock

Under wine: Install Microsoft.NET v4.0 and v4.5

$ sudo apt-get install winetricks -y

$ winetricks dotnet40
$ winetricks dotnet45

Configure Wine to Windows 10

$ wine winecfg

Open Windows using -> Applications tab -> Windows version -> Windows 10

Clone or download the repository: https://github.com/lmbelo/delphi4docker
Run delphi4dockercli
- Setup the delphi4dockercli options
- If you’ve followed the prescribed default settings in the above steps, you just need to set up the “Host Addr” option
- Goto Window VM and click on “Send” button in the delphi4dockersrv application
- Now press on the Receive button in the delphi4dockercli in Ubuntu VM
- Wait until the operation finish and press on the “Upack and Setup” button

Testing your environment

Compiling a Test Project

Enter the windows command prompt using the wine cmd command
Run the path\to\rsvars.bat as mentioned in the below image. This will configure the MSBuild
You can now compile the Test project using the msbuild
Recommendation: Place your test projects into the path\to\Embarcadero\Studio\Projects\ folder
You can configure the “Test Projects Folder” when bundling your Delphi environment using your Windows VM using the delphi4dockersrv application
Finally you can see the result of your test project compilation as you can observe in the image below

Installing and Configuring Docker

Before creating the docker container, we will install the Docker to our Ubuntu 20.04 system, which is available by default in the Ubuntu repository

Note: You can simplify this process running the setup_docker.sh script

Update all packages list on the Ubuntu repository and install Docker using the apt command below

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install docker.io

Once all installation is completed, start the Docker service and add it to the system boot

$ systemctl start docker
$ systemctl enable docker

Now check the Docker service using the command below

$ systemctl status docker

The Docker service is up and running on Ubuntu 22.04

Next, run the docker command below to ensure the installation is correct

$ docker run hello-world

Below is the result you will get.

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub
	(amd64)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
	executable that produces the output you are currently reading
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
	to your terminal

To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
 $ docker run -it ubuntu bash

Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
 https://hub.docker.com/

For more examples and ideas, visit:
 https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

As can be seen, you get the Hello World message from Docker, and the Docker installation on Ubuntu 20.04 has been completed successfully

Create a Docker Image using the Delphi Bundle

Open the docker > PersonalDockerfile from the cloned delphi4docker repo. Edit the file as needed and configure your Docker image
You’ll start with the base image as you can see in the “Download Delphi base image” section
An important step is to copy the host wine prefix that you’ve set up using the above steps. This step is already provided as part of the dockerfiles under the “Copy host wine” section. So you need not edit this
After that run the docker > PersonalDockerbuild using:

$ ./PersonalDockerBuild

Above step will clone the wine from your Ubuntu machine and create a docker image with Delphi compiler for you. This step will take a long time and require a lot of disk space

Please keep in mind that you can’t distribute the above-created docker image publicly because of license limitations. You can use it for your personal uses as you have the necessary Emabarcadero license

Compiling your Delphi projects using GitHub Actions

You can compile your Delphi projects hosted on GitHub using the GitHub Actions for free. We have created a list of steps that you can follow in the Wiki File: https://github.com/lmbelo/delphi4docker/wiki/GitHub-Actions

FactorySolution / delphi4docker