LabJack LJM Docker Image

Provides an image with LJM and LJM-Python.

LJM supports T-series LabJack devices.

See here for the full list of T-series software options.

Note: LJM Docker does not support Kipling.

Prerequisites

Linux is currently the only supported OS due to the docker run requirements for accessing the network and/or USB device layer. See Run below.

Run

LJM needs permissions to access the host network or the host USB layer.

To run with Ethernet/WiFi access, you need --network=host. For example:

sudo docker run --network=host labjack/ljm

USB access requires udev and the USB device bus shared, and also needs --privileged. For example:

docker run \
    -v /run/udev:/run/udev:ro \
    -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb \
    --privileged \
    labjack/ljm

To run interactively with both USB and network access, for example:

docker run --rm -it \
    -v /run/udev:/run/udev:ro \
    -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb \
    --privileged \
    --network=host \
    labjack/ljm

Example Dockerfile

Example usage:

FROM labjack/ljm:1.2100
WORKDIR /app
ADD . /app # Adds list_connections.py
CMD ["python3", "list_connections.py"]

See example.

Create your own Docker image with LJM

If you need to create your own docker image for another OS, or Architecture you can include LJM easily in your dockerfile. All you will need is to download any LJM installer for Linux from our website, or files.labjack.com.

Then to install LJM in your image, add to your Dockerfile:

ADD https://files.labjack.com/installers/LJM/Linux/x64/release/LabJack-LJM_2024-06-10.zip
RUN unzip LabJack-LJM_2024-06-10.zip
RUN ./labjack_ljm_installer.run -- --without-kipling --no-restart-device-rules

• Commands will need to be updated to match your Installer name/date.
• The --without-kipling and --no-restart-device-rules flags are necessary.

See also the Dockerfile from this repo for another example:

RUN wget https://files.labjack.com/installers/LJM/Linux/x64/minimal/beta/labjack_ljm_minimal_2020_03_30_x86_64_beta.tar.gz
RUN tar zxf ./labjack_ljm_minimal_2020_03_30_x86_64_beta.tar.gz
RUN ./labjack_ljm_minimal_2020_03_30_x86_64/labjack_ljm_installer.run -- --no-restart-device-rules

Project Life Cycle

Build: make

Clean: make clean

Test: make test

• Currently this just runs a ListAll command and displays the number of connections found.

Publishing a new version

• ubuntu_18/Dockerfile: Replace the LJM installer and LJM-Python URLs
• ubuntu_18/Dockerfile: Replace the LJM installer paths. The URL path may be different.
• Update VERSION, which serves as the tag that will be published
• example/Dockerfile: Update FROM line with the tag you just put in VERSION
• make clean, make, and make test
• docker login, as needed
• Publish: make publish