How to self host PixelFed on docker compose
Pixelfed is the open source alternative for instagram. So if you want to post your pictuers online and let strangers see them (for whatever reason) but scared from Facebook (or should I say meta?) take a copy of your pictuers forever. You can self-host your own instagram thanks to pixelfed!
It's easy to host it but before I start I will assume that:
* You are running debian 11
* You already have a VPS: https://blog.esmailelbob.xyz/how-to-get-a-vps
* Your linux distro is up-to-date (sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade)
* You have a domain name: https://blog.esmailelbob.xyz/how-to-get-a-domain-name
* Have sudo access or root account
* Already installed docker and docker-compose: https://blog.esmailelbob.xyz/how-to-install-docker-and-docker-compose
* Already installed Nginx: https://blog.esmailelbob.xyz/how-to-install-and-configure-nginx-96yp
* Already have a reverse proxy conf file: https://blog.esmailelbob.xyz/how-to-use-reverse-proxy-with-nginx
* Already have certbot to issue cert: https://blog.esmailelbob.xyz/how-to-use-certbot-with-nginx-to-make-your-website-get
Changes in DNS (domain side)
You really do not need to add any dns entries except if you want to create subdomain for this container then you go in your domain's dns panel and add either CNAME entry that looks like subdomain.domain.com and make it's target the root domain domain.com or A entry with subdoamin.domain.com and make it's target the IP of your VPS
Initial setup
Before we go on docker-compose file we need first to build the image (pixelfed does not provide already built image sadly) so before we need to clone pixelfed's repo and build the image.
*. Clone pixelfed repo:
git clone https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed.git
cd pixelfed
git checkout dev
*. Now it's time to build pixelfed docker image:
docker build . -t pixelfed:latest -f contrib/docker/Dockerfile.apache
*. Now copy .env.example to .env.docker (this is our config file)
cp .env.example .env.docker
This is my .env.docker file:
## Crypto and we will generate this later
APP_KEY=
## General Settings
APP_NAME="Pixelfed Prod"
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://pixelfed.esmailelbob.xyz
APP_DOMAIN="pixelfed.esmailelbob.xyz"
ADMIN_DOMAIN="pixelfed.esmailelbob.xyz"
SESSION_DOMAIN="pixelfed.esmailelbob.xyz"
## !!!Make sure to enable it after you finish generating keys and migrating!!!
#ENABLE_CONFIG_CACHE=true
OPEN_REGISTRATION=false
ENFORCE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION=true
PF_MAX_USERS=1000
OAUTH_ENABLED=true
APP_TIMEZONE=UTC
APP_LOCALE=en
## Pixelfed Tweaks
LIMIT_ACCOUNT_SIZE=false
MAX_ACCOUNT_SIZE=1000000
MAX_PHOTO_SIZE=15000
MAX_AVATAR_SIZE=2000
MAX_CAPTION_LENGTH=500
MAX_BIO_LENGTH=125
MAX_NAME_LENGTH=30
MAX_ALBUM_LENGTH=4
IMAGE_QUALITY=80
PF_OPTIMIZE_IMAGES=true
PF_OPTIMIZE_VIDEOS=true
ADMIN_ENV_EDITOR=false
ACCOUNT_DELETION=true
ACCOUNT_DELETE_AFTER=false
MAX_LINKS_PER_POST=0
## Instance
#INSTANCE_DESCRIPTION=
INSTANCE_PUBLIC_HASHTAGS=true
#INSTANCE_CONTACT_EMAIL=
INSTANCE_PUBLIC_LOCAL_TIMELINE=true
#BANNED_USERNAMES=
STORIES_ENABLED=true
RESTRICTED_INSTANCE=false
## Mail
MAIL_DRIVER=log
MAIL_HOST=smtp.mailtrap.io
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="pixelfed@example.com"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Pixelfed"
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
## Databases (MySQL)
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_DATABASE=pixelfed_prod
DB_HOST=db
DB_PASSWORD=pixelfed_db_pass
DB_PORT=3306
DB_USERNAME=pixelfed
# pass the same values to the db itself
MYSQL_DATABASE=pixelfed_prod
MYSQL_PASSWORD=pixelfed_db_pass
MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=true
MYSQL_USER=pixelfed
## Databases (Postgres)
#DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
#DB_HOST=postgres
#DB_PORT=5432
#DB_DATABASE=pixelfed
#DB_USERNAME=postgres
#DB_PASSWORD=postgres
## Cache (Redis)
REDIS_CLIENT=phpredis
REDIS_SCHEME=tcp
REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PASSWORD=redis_password
REDIS_PORT=6379
REDIS_DATABASE=0
## EXPERIMENTS
EXP_LC=false
EXP_REC=false
EXP_LOOPS=false
## ActivityPub Federation
ACTIVITY_PUB=true
AP_REMOTE_FOLLOW=true
AP_SHAREDINBOX=true
AP_INBOX=true
AP_OUTBOX=true
ATOM_FEEDS=true
NODEINFO=true
WEBFINGER=true
## S3
FILESYSTEM_DRIVER=local
FILESYSTEM_CLOUD=s3
PF_ENABLE_CLOUD=false
#AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
#AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
#AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=
#AWS_BUCKET=
#AWS_URL=
#AWS_ENDPOINT=
#AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT=false
## Horizon
HORIZON_DARKMODE=true
## COSTAR - Confirm Object Sentiment Transform and Reduce
PF_COSTAR_ENABLED=false
# Media
MEDIA_EXIF_DATABASE=false
## Logging
LOG_CHANNEL=stderr
## Image
IMAGE_DRIVER=imagick
## Broadcasting
BROADCAST_DRIVER=log # log driver for local development
## Cache
CACHE_DRIVER=redis
## Purify
RESTRICT_HTML_TYPES=true
## Queue
QUEUE_DRIVER=redis
## Session
SESSION_DRIVER=redis
## Trusted Proxy
TRUST_PROXIES="*"
## Passport
#PASSPORT_PRIVATE_KEY=
#PASSPORT_PUBLIC_KEY=
And edit .env.docker file as needed but make sure to change APP_DOMAIN, ADMIN_DOMAIN and SESSION_DOMAIN to your pixelfed domain (ex: pixelfed.esmailelbob.xyz) and change APP_URL to https:// + your pixelfed domain (ex: https://pixelfed.esmailelbob.xyz)
pixelfed docker-compose file
After we finish with .env.docker file, We need a docker-compose.yml file so we can start pixelfed, for me I use this file:
---
version: '3'
# In order to set configuration, please use a .env file in
# your compose project directory (the same directory as your
# docker-compose.yml), and set database options, application
# name, key, and other settings there.
# A list of available settings is available in .env.example
#
# The services should scale properly across a swarm cluster
# if the volumes are properly shared between cluster members.
services:
## App and Worker
app:
# Comment to use dockerhub image
build:
context: .
dockerfile: contrib/docker/Dockerfile.apache
image: pixelfed:latest
restart: unless-stopped
env_file:
- .env.docker
volumes:
# - app-storage:/var/www/storage
- "./PIXELFED_DATA:/var/www/storage"
- app-bootstrap:/var/www/bootstrap
- "./.env.docker:/var/www/.env"
networks:
- external
- internal
ports:
- "127.0.0.1:8282:80"
depends_on:
- db
- redis
worker:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: contrib/docker/Dockerfile.apache
image: pixelfed:latest
restart: unless-stopped
env_file:
- .env.docker
volumes:
# - app-storage:/var/www/storage
- "./PIXELFED_DATA:/var/www/storage"
- app-bootstrap:/var/www/bootstrap
networks:
- external
- internal
command: gosu www-data php artisan horizon
depends_on:
- db
- redis
## DB and Cache
db:
image: mysql:8.0
restart: unless-stopped
networks:
- internal
command: --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
env_file:
- .env.docker
volumes:
- "db-data:/var/lib/mysql"
redis:
image: redis:5-alpine
restart: unless-stopped
env_file:
- .env.docker
volumes:
- "redis-data:/data"
networks:
- internal
volumes:
db-data:
redis-data:
app-storage:
app-bootstrap:
networks:
internal:
internal: true
external:
driver: bridge
Optional stuff to change: ./PIXELFED_DATA: This is where our photos will be saved at 127.0.0.1:8282: Change this if you want to change port of pixelfed
Spin it up!
Now after we done editing, and everything is cool. We need to run our container so just run:
docker-compose up -d
the -d option does not let docker post logs of running application but if you want to see logs you can run:
sudo docker-compose logs -f -t
To check if there any weird behaviors or errors.
Then we need to run couple of commands to generate keys (so we can edit pixelfed from gui later) and to create database! So first we will generate keys run:
docker-compose exec app php artisan key:generate
docker-compose exec app php artisan passport:keys
docker-compose exec app php artisan route:cache
docker-compose exec app php artisan cache:clear
And make sure we have the keys:
cat .env.docker | grep APP_KEY
Now time for the db (database):
docker-compose restart app
docker-compose exec app php artisan config:cache
docker-compose exec app php artisan migrate
NOTE: If migration fails, take it down (by docker-compose down) and then start it again (by docker-compose up -d) and re-run the migration command (docker-compose exec app php artisan migrate)
Last but not least, it's time to create an account:
docker-compose exec app php artisan user:create
NOTE: to enabe edit settings of pixelfed from pixelfed website add this to .env.docker:
ENABLE_CONFIG_CACHE=true
Nginx
Now after we make sure it's running well. We need to serve it over the internet (called reverse proxy) so without much talk, here is our server block for pixelfed:
server {
listen [::]:80;
listen 80;
server_name [domain name] ;
location / {
include /etc/nginx/reverse-proxy.conf;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8282/;
}
}
server_name: Change this to match domain name of pixelfed include: is our reverse proxy file proxy_pass: the IP and port of our running docker image
After this you should be up and running for pixelfed! :) just do not forget to run certbot --nginx to make it secure with https://
Update it
Of course after some time the image will be outdated and you need to update and what I love about docker that it's easy to update, really just to do it run:
git pull
docker-compose down
docker build . -t pixelfed:latest -f contrib/docker/Dockerfile.apache
docker-compose up -d
What it does is: 1) Pull updates from github, 2) Stops the container, 3) Build pixelfed image and 4) Re-run the container back!
Firewall
If you use firewall (ufw for example) you really do not need any ports other than 443 and 80 as we use nginx reverse proxy