VShell container image

Container image for VanDyke Software VShell for UNIX 5.0.1 (build 3985) — the SSH2/SFTP, FTPS and HTTPS file-transfer server — built from the vendor's vshell-https-5.0.1-3985.ubuntu24-64.x86_64.deb.

Image: gitea.milesward.dev/mward4/vshell:5.0.1-3985 (also tagged latest). Manifest digest: sha256:8b0ff00be981fa05f1e4a4e4ff5307b6c7e5e61b487d4fbe7e02fefb2a04659f.

What is in the image

Layer	Contents
ubuntu:24.04	Base OS. Required: the vendor binaries link GLIBC_2.38 and GLIBCXX_3.4.32, so Ubuntu 22.04 / Debian 12 are too old.
layer-vshell.tar.gz	dpkg -i of the vendor .deb, plus openssl (for the runtime self-signed PKCS#12 certificate) and the container entrypoint.

Runtime dependencies are the ones the vendor binaries actually link against: libpam0g, libpam-modules, libpam-runtime (password/keyboard-interactive auth), libuuid1, zlib1g, libstdc++6, libaudit1, libcap-ng0. All are already part of ubuntu:24.04; openssl is the only added package.

Systemd units shipped by the vendor are not used — there is no init system in the image. docker/entrypoint.sh starts the three daemons and supervises them.

Run

docker run -d --name vshell \
  -p 22:22 -p 21:21 -p 990:990 -p 80:80 -p 443:443 \
  -v /srv/vshell/vshelld_config:/usr/local/etc/vshelld_config \
  -v /srv/vshell/vshell-https.p12:/usr/local/etc/vshell-https.p12 \
  -v /srv/vshell/vshelld_hostkey:/usr/local/etc/vshelld_hostkey \
  gitea.milesward.dev/mward4/vshell:5.0.1-3985

On first start the entrypoint seeds vshelld_config and vshelld_primes.txt from the vendor defaults, generates a self-signed PKCS#12 certificate when /usr/local/etc/vshell-https.p12 is absent, and appends the listen addresses below unless the mounted configuration already defines HTTPSListenAddresses.

Port	Service	Env override
22/tcp	SSH2 / SFTP (vshelld)	VSHELL_SSH_ADDR
21/tcp	explicit FTPS (vshell-ftpsd)	VSHELL_FTPS_EXPLICIT_ADDR
990/tcp	implicit FTPS (vshell-ftpsd)	VSHELL_FTPS_IMPLICIT_ADDR
80/tcp	HTTP, redirects to HTTPS (vshell-httpsd)	VSHELL_HTTP_ADDR
443/tcp	HTTPS file transfer (vshell-httpsd)	VSHELL_HTTPS_ADDR

Other env vars: VSHELL_CONFIG (default /usr/local/etc/vshelld_config) and VSHELL_TLS_P12 (default /usr/local/etc/vshell-https.p12).

Mount individual files rather than a whole volume at /usr/local/etc: that directory also holds the vendor defaults, the Diffie-Hellman primes file and the HttpsFiles/ web assets, which an empty volume would hide. Persist vshelld_config and vshelld_hostkey to keep the server identity stable across restarts.

VShell requires a license; the image starts on the shipped 60-day evaluation license (valid until 2026-12-04). Check with vshelld -license, install a license file and point LicenseFilePath at it for production.

Build

Canonical build (needs Docker or Podman):

docker build -t vshell:5.0.1-3985 .

This repository also builds without a container runtime — the path used to produce the published image — by installing the .deb into an extracted ubuntu:24.04 rootfs and turning the diff into an image layer:

node tools/fetch-base.mjs                                  # ubuntu:24.04 -> /tmp/vshell-base
mkdir -p /tmp/vshell-rootfs && tar -xzf /tmp/vshell-base/layer-00.tar -C /tmp/vshell-rootfs --numeric-owner
docker/install-rootfs.sh /tmp/vshell-rootfs                # dpkg -i + openssl + entrypoint  (see script)
tools/validate.sh /tmp/vshell-rootfs                       # binaries, config, all five listeners
mkdir -p /tmp/vshell-pristine && tar -xzf /tmp/vshell-base/layer-00.tar -C /tmp/vshell-pristine --numeric-owner
node tools/build-image.mjs --rootfs /tmp/vshell-rootfs --pristine /tmp/vshell-pristine \
  --base /tmp/vshell-base --out dist --tag vshell:5.0.1-3985,vshell:latest
GITEA_TOKEN=... node tools/push-image.mjs --registry https://gitea.milesward.dev \
  --repo mward4/vshell --user mward4 --summary dist/image-summary.json

tools/build-image.mjs writes dist/layer-vshell.tar.gz, dist/config.json, dist/manifest.json, dist/image-summary.json and an OCI layout under dist/oci/. tools/push-image.mjs uploads the referenced blobs (including the official ubuntu:24.04 layer) and the schema-2 manifest, then reads the manifest back and compares digests.

Validation

tools/validate.sh <rootfs> starts the image's own entrypoint inside a user-namespace chroot on high ports and probes every listener from outside: SSH banner, FTPS banner, HTTPS/TLS handshake, implicit FTPS handshake and the HTTP→HTTPS redirect, after checking -version, -test_config and -license.

Licensing

VShell is commercial, closed-source software distributed under the VanDyke Software EULA (see /usr/share/doc/vshell-5.0.1/vshell_eula.pdf in the image). The vendor .deb is vendored here only to make the image build reproducible and the Gitea repository/package is kept private. Do not publish the image or the .deb publicly.