FAQ: How to add rsync or other linux packages in Domino?

We often hear from users who want to add a linux package like rsync to their Domino environment. We'll show you here how to do this for rsync, and then you'll be ready to add any other packages you like.

In Domino, any package you're going to use more than once should be added to your compute environment, so that your packages will always be available when you start your workspace or job. If you're new to Domino, this short video on compute environments is a great introduction. If you're testing out something new, we recommend trying it in an interactive workspace (such as a terminal in a Jupyter workspace session) before proceeding to add it to your compute environment. Remember that when you add it to your compute environment, the installation won't be interactive, so you'll likely have to add a -y after your installation command to allow the package to install without user input. Also remember that you'll need to use a compute environment you have Edit permissions on, so if you're using a global environment or one that you don't own, you may need to duplicate it before you can edit.

To install rsyncin ubuntu, you can use the apt-get method. So in your interactive terminal you would type apt-get update && apt-get install rsync . When you're ready to add this to a compute environment, you can open up the compute environment and click Edit (as in the video) and then in the bottom of the `Dockerfile Instructions` section you can add `RUN apt-get update && apt-get install rsync`. Then scroll to the bottom and click Build. That's it! You can monitor your build on the Revisions page and when it's done, you can use it in your project by making sure that environment is set as the default environment for your project.

Questions? Suggestions? Feedback? Let us know below.

Happy Domino-ing