Docker Image for Friendica

This repository holds the official Docker Image for Friendica

What is Friendica?

Friendica is a decentralised communications platform that integrates social communication. Our platform links to independent social projects and corporate services.

How to use this image

The images are designed to be used in a micro-service environment. There are two types of the image you can choose from.

The apache tag contains a full Friendica installation including an apache web server. It is designed to be easy to use and gets you running pretty fast. This is also the default for the latest tag and version tags that are not further specified.

The second option is a fpm container. It is based on the php-fpm image and runs a fastCGI-Process that serves your Friendica server. To use this image it must be combined with any Webserver that can proxy the http requests to the FastCGI-port of the container.

Using the apache image

You need at least one other mariadb/mysql-container to link it to Friendica.

The apache image contains a webserver and exposes port 80. To start the container type:

$ docker run -d -p 8080:80 --link some-mysql:mysql friendica 

Now you can access the Friendica installation wizard at http://localhost:8080/ from your host system.

Using the fpm image

To use the fpm image you need an additional web server that can proxy http-request to the fpm-port of the container. For fpm connection this container exposes port 9000. In most cases you might want use another container or your host as proxy. If you use your host you can address your Friendica container directly on port 9000. If you use another container, make sure that you add them to the same docker network (via docker run --network <NAME> ... or a docker-compose file). In both cases you don't want to map the fpm port to you host.

$ docker run -d friendica:fpm

As the fastCGI-Process is not capable of serving static files (style sheets, images, ...) the webserver needs access to these files. This can be achieved with the volumes-from option. You can find more information in the docker-compose section.

Using the cron job

There are three options to enable the cron-job for Friendica:

• Using the default Image and activate the cron-job (see Installation, sector Activating scheduled tasks)
• Using the default image (apache, fpm, fpm-alpine) and use two container (one for cron and one for the main app)
• Using one of the additional, prepared dockerfiles

Using sendmail for E-Mail support

You have to set the --hostname/-h parameter correctly to make the mail() command use the right domainname of it's e-mail. Currently, the command sendmail will be used for the mail() support of Friendica.

Be aware that in production environment, you normally have an external MTA (or a SmartHost) for correctly signing and routing your e-mails. See the Dockerfiles at smtp for examples how to configure it.

apache and fpm image

sendmail is used as a SMTP MTA for standalone usage and it works out-of-the-box.

fpm-alpine image

For alpine, there is no "standalone" mail-service available. Therefore you have to setup a SMTP MTA.

Using an external database

By default the latest container uses a local MySQL-Database for data storage, but the Friendica setup wizard (appears on first run) allows connecting to an existing MySQL/MariaDB database. You can also link a database container, e. g. --link my-mysql:mysql, and then use mysql as the database host on setup.

Persistent data

The Friendica installation and all data beyond what lives in the database (file uploads, etc) is stored in the unnamed docker volume volume /var/www/html. The docker daemon will store that data within the docker directory /var/lib/docker/volumes/.... That means your data is saved even if the container crashes, is stopped or deleted.

To make your data persistent to upgrading and get access for backups is using named docker volume or mount a host folder. To achieve this you need one volume for your database container and Friendica.

Friendica:

• /var/www/html/ folder where all Friendica data lives

$ docker run -d \
-v friendica-vol-1:/var/www/html \
friendica

Database:

• /var/lib/mysql MySQL / MariaDB Data

$ docker run -d \
-v mysql-vol-1:/var/lib/mysql \
mariadb

Auto configuration via environment variables

The Friendica image supports auto configuration via environment variables. You can preconfigure everything that is asked on the install page on first run.

• AUTOINSTALL if true, the automatic configuration will start (Default: false)

MYSQL/MariaDB:

• MYSQL_USERNAME Username for the database user using mysql / mariadb.
• MYSQL_PASSWORD Password for the database user using mysql / mariadb.
• MYSQL_DATABASE Name of the database using mysql / mariadb.
• MYSQL_HOST Hostname of the database server using mysql / mariadb.
• MYSQL_PORT Port of the database server using mysql / mariadb.

You can also predefine the following .htconfig.php values:

• MAILNAME E-Mail address of the administrator
• TZ The default localization of the Friendica server
• LANGUAGE The default language of the Friendica server
• SITENAME The default name of the Friendica server

Updating Friendica

There are differences between the stable and the develop branches.

They have both in common that normally we do not automatically overwrite your working directory with the new version. Instead you need to explicit run update for the node for updating files&database.

Updating stable

You have to pull the latest image from the hub (docker pull friendica).

Updating develop

You don't need to pull the image for each commit in friendica. Instead you can just update your node with executing update on the node. Example:

$ docker exec -ti friendica_running_node update

It will clone the latest Friendica version and copy it to your working directory.

Questions / Issues

If you got any questions or problems using the image, please visit our Github Repository and write an issue.