I was initially skeptical that running Chrome in a container on macOS would be possible, but I was surprised when it worked without a hitch.
If you're interested in isolating the browser and its dependencies from the rest of your system, or if you want to test out new features without affecting your main installation, then running Chrome in a container on macOS is definitely worth considering, so hang on
Introduction to running Chrome in a container on macOS
Running Chrome in a container on macOS is a great way to isolate the browser and its dependencies from the rest of your system. This can be especially useful if you want to run multiple versions of Chrome or if you want to test out new features without affecting your main installation.
Setting up Docker on macOS
To get started, you'll need to have Docker installed on your macOS system. If you don't already have it, you can download and install Docker from the official website :
Go to (docker.com) and click the "Get Docker" button.
Click the "Download for Mac" button to download the Docker installer.
Double-click the downloaded installer package to open it.
Follow the prompts to install Docker on your system. This will typically involve dragging the Docker icon into the Applications folder.
Once the installation is complete, open Docker from the Applications folder.
Click the "Sign In" button and follow the prompts to create a Docker account or sign in with an existing account.
After setting up Docker, you should be able to use the docker command in a terminal window to interact with the Docker daemon and manage containers on your system.
Pulling the official Chrome image from Docker Hub
Once you have Docker installed, you can pull the official Chrome image from Docker Hub by running the following command:
docker pull google/chrome
This will download the latest version of Chrome and all of its dependencies into your Docker image library.
Running Chrome in a container
To run Chrome in a container, you can use the following command:
docker run -it --rm -p 9222:9222 --name chrome google/chrome
Accessing the browser running in the container
This will start a new container using the Chrome image, bind it to port 9222, and give it the name "chrome". The -it flag allows you to interact with the container in a terminal, and the --rm flag tells Docker to automatically remove the container when you exit.
Running Chrome in headless mode
Once the container is running, you can open Chrome on your host machine and navigate to localhost:9222 to access the browser running in the container. You can also use the --headless flag to run Chrome in headless mode, which is useful for running automated tests or for running Chrome in the background.
Advantages of running Chrome in a container on macOS
Running Chrome in a container has several advantages. It allows you to run multiple versions of Chrome side-by-side, and it makes it easy to test out new features or roll back to a previous version if something goes wrong. It also provides a level of isolation between the browser and the rest of your system, which can help to prevent conflicts and security issues.
Conclusion
Overall, running Chrome in a container on macOS is a convenient and flexible way to use the browser on your system. With a little bit of setup, you can easily run Chrome in a container and take advantage of all of the benefits it has to offer.
I hope you found this helpful! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below.