[SOLVED] Pycharm - using remote Docker container as interpreter

Issue

I have a remote machine, with a running Docker container, and I want to set-up Pycharm to use the Python interpreter within the container. So, the situation is something like this:

    PyCharm
      ^
local_machine -->  remote_machine
                         |
                         V
                   docker_container   

On the local machine, I have a ~/.ssh/config file:

Host remote_machine
        HostName remote_machine_ip
        User user_name

Host docker_vie01_00
    HostName docker_container_ip_address
    User root
    ProxyJump remote_machine   

I can ssh to the docker container from my local machine using:

ssh docker_vie01_00

I'm asked for a password (I configured the Docker root password in the Dockerfile that I used to create the container), and I'm in the container.

Now I'm trying to configure Pycharm to do the same.
If I check the SSH Configurations section, everything seems to be working fine:

However, using the same SSH configuration for the deployment fails:

I tried creating the interpreter using the SSH server:

Which seems to be successful, this is the output:

Successfully connected to root@docker_vie01_00:22

> pwd
/root
Command finished with exit code 0

Checking rsync connection...
/usr/bin/rsync -n -e "ssh -p 22 " root@docker_vie01_00:

[email protected]'s password: 

drwx------        4096 2023/05/04 15:12:02 .
-rw-------          15 2023/05/04 15:12:02 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--        3106 2019/12/05 15:39:21 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--         161 2019/12/05 15:39:21 .profile
drwxrwxr-x        4096 2023/04/17 11:26:00 .aws
drwxr-xr-x        4096 2023/04/17 17:00:43 .cache
drwxr-xr-x        4096 2023/04/17 17:00:37 .npm
drwxr-xr-x        4096 2023/05/04 15:10:10 work
Process finished with exit code 0

Starting introspection for Python...
> echo ${SHELL}
/bin/bash
Command finished with exit code 0
> /usr/bin/which python3
/usr/bin/python3
Command finished with exit code 0
> echo ${HOME}
/root
Command finished with exit code 0

Introspection completed

But then, Pycharm can't navigate the container folders to let me find the Python interpreter:

I also tried setting the interpreter path manually, but then it seems that nothing is loaded:

If I try to run the code, I get this error window:

Solution

I was told on the PyCharm forums that this is likely to be a bug, so not much to do at the moment. However, if you use PyCharm Pro, there's a new Beta functionality which allows you to SSH into remote hosts...it's the "Remote Development → SSH" option, accessible through the "Welcome to PyCharm" window

Selecting New Project, you can select between the possible SSH configurations available in PyCharm (you can set them up through Setting → Tools → SSH Configurations). The whole thing is actually much more similar to how VS Code works. It downloads some helpers and open a remote PyCharm instance directly on the remote machine, and you can work there. I tested it, and it works in remote docker containers as well.

Another alternative is to use VS Code, I kinda like how this remote deployment is implemented there.

Answered By - Carlo

Answer Checked By - Dawn Plyler (WPSolving Volunteer)