MaixCDK docker building environment

2025-09-30

About Docker and install Docker

Docker is a tool, here we use it to create a clean Ubuntu environment to build MaixCDK.
Use docker you don't need to install dependencies manually, just create a docker container and then all ready.

Docker install doc see Docker official doc

After installation, you can use docker --version to check if it is installed successfully.

Pull from docker hub (recommended), or build by yourself

docker pull sipeed/maixcdk-builder

Or you can build from Dockerfile by yourself.
docker build --network=host -t maixcdk-builder .
You can also add proxy by add args:--network=host --build-arg http_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:8123 --build-arg https_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:8123

Create and run container

The upper step we got a docker system image, now we create a container to run this image.

docker run -it --network=host --hostname maixcdk-env --name maixcdk-env --env USER=$USER --env UID=`id -u` --env GID=`id -g` --env MAIXCDK_PATH=/home/${USER}/MaixCDK -v /home/${USER}/MaixCDK:/home/${USER}/MaixCDK sipeed/maixcdk-builder

! DO NOT add /bin/bash to the end of the command.
--network=host means use the same network as host PC.
--hostname means set hostname of container to maixcdk-env.
--name means set container name to maixcdk-env, then you can use docker command to control it.
Then assign USER(your user name of host PC), user id, group id to use the same as host PC's user info in container to avoid permission problem.
You can use -v host_dir:container_dir to map your data to container, e.g. -v /home/${USER}/MaixCDK:/home/${USER}/MaixCDK -v /home/${USER}/projects:/home/${USER}/projects.
It's recommended to map your directories to the container's same directory, this is useful to see logs.
--env MAIXCDK_PATH=/home/${USER}/MaixCDK arg to set MAIXCDK_PATH environment variable, so you can compile your project anywhere in container.
sipeed/maixcdk-builder is the image name, if you build by yourself, use maixcdk-builder instead.

Then you can use shell command in container.
The user's password is maixcdk by default, if you want to change it, use docker exec -it maixcdk-env passwd to change it.

Build MaixCDK projects or examples

When step into container, you can use shell command to build according to the MaixCDK document.

cd /MaixCDK/examples/hello_world
maixcdk build
maixcdk run

cd ~/projects/my_project
maixcdk build
maixcdk run

Stop container

docker stop maixcdk-env

RUN container

docker start maixcdk-env
docker attach maixcdk-env

Execute command through host shell

docker exec -it --user $USER maixcdk-env "cd /MaixCDK/examples/hello_world && maixcdk build && maixcdk run"

docker exec -it --user $USER maixcdk-env  /bin/bash

Remove container

docker stop maixcdk-env
docker rm maixcdk-env

Memory leak check