PhotoStructure for Docker

December 3, 2019

These are instructions for advanced users, wanting to run PhotoStructure for Servers.

Please make sure you’ve read the pros and cons of both approaches before continuing.

Step 1: Accept the license #

Please read and accept the end-user license agreement. Installing and running PhotoStructure indicates your agreement to all terms in the license.

Step 2: Install both docker and docker-compose #

Follow these instructions for docker and these instructions for docker-compose. We use docker-compose to automatically upgrade PhotoStructure.

You’ll need a version of docker-compose that can handle version 3.

Step 3: Download the start script #

Open a terminal, and run:

mkdir -p $HOME/photostructure;
cd $HOME/photostructure;
wget https://photostructure.com/server/start-docker.sh;
chmod +x start-docker.sh;
wget https://photostructure.com/server/photostructure.env;

Step 4: Configure PhotoStructure #

In a text editor, edit photostructure.env to suit your system.

You may only need to change the LIBRARY value, but make sure you read through the whole file.

Step 5: Configure Watchtower #

The default PhotoStructure docker setup uses watchtower to keep your PhotoStructure instance up to date with bugfixes and new features.

By default, Watchtower updates all containers on your system. If you don’t want this behavior, please edit your docker-compose.yml by following these instructions.

Step 6: Start PhotoStructure #

Open a terminal and run

cd $HOME/photostructure;
start-docker.sh

By default, start-docker.sh builds a docker-compose.yml file and then runs docker-compose start.

If you’d rather run the services in the foreground, run start-docker.sh up. Hit ctrl-c to shut down the services.

If you just want to see the configuration file it creates, run start-docker.sh config. The docker-compose.yml will be emitted to stdout.

Step 7: Welcome to PhotoStructure! #

Open a browser to http://localhost:1787 to complete installation.

How to stop PhotoStructure #

Open a terminal and run

cd $HOME/photostructure;
docker-compose stop

Uninstalling PhotoStructure #

Run docker-compose down to remove PhotoStructure images from your local docker image cache. Careful: do not use the -v option, as that deletes all volume mount points.
As you see fit, remove your LIBRARY, CONFIG, LOG, and TMP directories, but take care not to delete photos and videos you want to keep! If you want to keep the originals in your library, but remove PhotoStructure’s preview images and videos, you can delete the $LIBRARY/.photostructure/previews directory.

PhotoStructure without `docker-compose` #

You can run the photostructure/server image without docker-compose, but:

ensure you always pull the latest version (we provide no support for older versions)
you’ll need to ensure all volume mount points in the Dockerfile are satisfied.

To simplify this work, download the start-docker.sh script using the instructions above, and then run start-docker.sh config. Examine the resulting docker-compose.yml and note the following:

/ps/config needs to point to a directory on your host machine (like $HOME/.config)
/ps/library needs to point to the directory on your host machine with a lot of free disk space
/ps/tmp should point to a fast, local disk on your host machine that has several gigs free
If your library directory doesn’t already have the photos and videos you want in your PhotoStructure library, add them as volumes, and then add the docker image mount points to your SCAN_PATHS. Alternatively, set PS_SCAN_ALL_DRIVES to 1, and let PhotoStructure find your mount points automatically.

Photo by Andrew Bain

Server