Windows developers unable to run docker-compose due to line ending issues

[paarthbhatt]

Description

Windows developers encounter a critical failure when attempting to run VulnerableCode using Docker Compose. The main vulnerablecode service fails to start with the following error:

env: use -[v]S to pass options in shebang line

This prevents Windows developers from setting up a local development environment and running essential commands like:

docker compose exec vulnerablecode ./manage.py import <importer>
docker compose exec vulnerablecode ./manage.py improve --all

Root Cause

The issue occurs because:

1. Git on Windows by default converts line endings from LF (Unix) to CRLF (Windows) when cloning repositories
2. The repository lacks a .gitattributes file to enforce consistent line endings
3. When Docker runs the Linux container, the shebang line (#!/usr/bin/env python) in manage.py fails because it includes the Windows carriage return (\r) character
4. This causes the container to exit immediately with code 1

Steps to Reproduce

Environment:

• OS: Windows 10/11
• Docker Desktop for Windows (with WSL2 backend)
• Git for Windows (default settings)

Steps:

1. Clone the repository on Windows: git clone https://github.com/aboutcode-org/vulnerablecode.git
2. Navigate to the directory: cd vulnerablecode
3. Run: docker compose up -d
4. Check service status: docker compose ps
5. Observe that the vulnerablecode service has exited
6. Check logs: docker compose logs vulnerablecode

Expected behavior: All services should start successfully and remain running.

Actual behavior: The vulnerablecode service exits with error "env: use -[v]S to pass options in shebang line"

Impact

This issue affects:

• New contributors trying to set up their development environment on Windows
• Windows developers participating in GSoC or other contribution programs
• Anyone attempting to test or deploy VulnerableCode on Windows with Docker

Additional Notes

This is a common issue in cross-platform development and is considered a best practice to include a .gitattributes file in repositories that are used across different operating systems.

I would like to contribute

I'd be happy to submit a PR to add the .gitattributes file and update the documentation if needed. Please let me know if this approach looks good to you.