How can I setup and run my own tt-rss instance with docker-compose within 2 minutes?

TL;DR Link to heading

# preparation
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip git curl
# see https://docs.docker.com/installation/ubuntulinux/
$ curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | sh
$ sudo pip install docker-compose

# installation
$ git clone https://github.com/lkwg82/blog.git blog
$ cd blog/examples/20150908_tinytinyrss_docker-compose
$ ./run.sh

# usage
$ firefox http://localhost:9108/

Here comes the little longer story … not much longer … only more prose.

Intro Link to heading

This example is about installing tt-rss from scratch with its requires database server (I took postgres) with docker and docker-compose.

Why? Link to heading

I like to have some easy reproducible installation procedures for wanna-be-complex setups. I took docker as my favourite virtualization technique.

What is …? Link to heading

  • tt-rss: it is an open source web based rss feed reader similiar to former google reader.
  • docker: Docker containers wrap up a piece of software in a complete filesystem that contains everything it needs to run: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries – anything you can install on a server. This guarantees that it will always run the same, regardless of the environment it is running in. (cite from here)
  • docker-compose: Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container applications with Docker. With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running. (cite from here).

how? Link to heading

(I explain here only the ./run.sh context from TL:DR)

create a file called docker-compose.yml

# https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres/
pgdb:
   container_name: pgdb
   image: postgres
   environment:
       - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword
       - PGDATA=/pgdata
   volumes:
       - ./volumes/pgdb_pgdata:/pgdata

ttrss:
   container_name: ttrss
   build: setup_data
   links:
      - pgdb:db
   volumes:
      - ./tt-rss_:/var/www/html:rw
   ports:
      - 9108:80
  • line 2 and 11: two services called pgdb (postgres database) and ttrss (feed reader), can be later called from docker-compose separatly
  • line 3: docker container name is pgdb
  • line 4: service bases on docker image pgdb(:latest)
  • line 8: saves the database outside in the local directory ./volumes/pgdb_pgdata and mounts into container under /pgdata
  • line 13: looks for a Dockerfile in the directory named setup_data
  • line 14: links container pgdb with alias db, so inside of this container the database is addressable via db, (imagine a call of ping db)
  • line 19: exposes container port 80 to local 9108 (http://localhost:9108 should get the reader)

Build the setup with docker-compose build from the directory where the docker-compose.yml is. First it will build the pgdb container and then the ttrss. After they are built call docker-compose up. (For this setup watch the run.sh! There are some additional setup calls.)

Disclaimer 1: For simplicity reasons I deployed the db … no I let it to you, to find this little nasty thing ;).
Disclaimer 2: Maybe the downloads take longer than while my tests.