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Etherpad Etherpad

Stack

DocumentsProductivity

Collaborative text editor where everyone types in the same document at once, with history, chat and plugins. This one runs on Postgres. Source: https://github.com/ether/etherpad

Source details

Repo: ether/etherpad
Stars: 18.6k
Forks: 3k
Language: TypeScript
License: Apache-2.0
Latest: v3.3.8 · 5 days ago
Updated: 23 hours ago
Website: etherpad.org/

Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Env vars
ETHERPAD_ADMIN_PASSWORD=''ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD=''ETHERPAD_PORT=9001ETHERPAD_TRUST_PROXY=false
Restart
unless-stopped
Source
Repo

Template by NotAFlightRisk·Source

Report issue

Notes

Set both passwords before you deploy (openssl rand -hex 32 makes good ones), since the stack won't start without them. Then open http://<your-host>:9001 (or whichever port you picked) and start a pad. Anyone who can reach it can create and edit pads, so keep it off the open internet or put a login in front of it. The admin panel is at /admin, user admin. Pads are stored in Postgres, in the postgres-data volume. Docs: docs.etherpad.org

Services

etherpad

Configuration

Image
etherpad/etherpad:3
Ports
${ETHERPAD_PORT:-9001}:9001
Volumes
/opt/etherpad-lite/var : etherpad-var/opt/etherpad-lite/src/plugin_packages : etherpad-plugins
Env vars
NODE_ENV=productionADMIN_PASSWORD=${ETHERPAD_ADMIN_PASSWORD:?Set an admin password}DB_TYPE=postgresDB_HOST=postgresDB_PORT=5432DB_NAME=etherpadDB_USER=etherpadDB_PASS=${ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}TRUST_PROXY=${ETHERPAD_TRUST_PROXY:-false}
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 16.2M
User: etherpad
Created: Nov 26, 2018
Updated: 23 hours ago
Status: active

postgres

Configuration

Image
postgres:17-alpine
Volumes
/var/lib/postgresql/data : postgres-data
Env vars
POSTGRES_DB=etherpadPOSTGRES_USER=etherpadPOSTGRES_PASSWORD=${ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 11.9B
User: stackbrew
Created: Jun 05, 2014
Updated: 8 days ago
Status: active

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Etherpad

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select Etherpad, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  etherpad:
    image: etherpad/etherpad:3
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${ETHERPAD_PORT:-9001}:9001"
    environment:
      NODE_ENV: production
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ETHERPAD_ADMIN_PASSWORD:?Set an admin password}
      DB_TYPE: postgres
      DB_HOST: postgres
      DB_PORT: 5432
      DB_NAME: etherpad
      DB_USER: etherpad
      DB_PASS: ${ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
      TRUST_PROXY: ${ETHERPAD_TRUST_PROXY:-false}
    volumes:
      - etherpad-var:/opt/etherpad-lite/var
      - etherpad-plugins:/opt/etherpad-lite/src/plugin_packages
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy

  postgres:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: etherpad
      POSTGRES_USER: etherpad
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${ETHERPAD_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U etherpad -d etherpad"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  etherpad-var:
  etherpad-plugins:
  postgres-data:

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/NotAFlightRisk/portainer-templates-extras
cd portainer-templates-extras
docker compose -f apps/etherpad/compose.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation, or see ether/etherpad for app-specific guidance.

Container Documentation

etherpad Documentation

This is the Etherpad image from the development team.

postgres Documentation

The PostgreSQL object-relational database system provides reliability and data integrity.

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull etherpad/etherpad:3

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

Etherpad is a Compose stack, a set of containers (2 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The services

This stack is built from 2 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:

  • etherpad runs etherpad/etherpad:3, starts after postgres
  • postgres runs postgres:17-alpine

Volumes

A volume is where Etherpad keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /opt/etherpad-lite/var kept in the etherpad-var volume Docker manages
  • /opt/etherpad-lite/src/plugin_packages kept in the etherpad-plugins volume Docker manages
  • /var/lib/postgresql/data kept in the postgres-data volume Docker manages

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Etherpad takes 12 of them, and 3 need a value before it'll start properly:

  • NODE_ENV, defaults to production
  • ADMIN_PASSWORD, needs a value
  • DB_TYPE, defaults to postgres
  • DB_HOST, defaults to postgres
  • DB_PORT, defaults to 5432
  • DB_NAME, defaults to etherpad
  • DB_USER, defaults to etherpad
  • DB_PASS, needs a value
  • TRUST_PROXY, defaults to false
  • POSTGRES_DB, defaults to etherpad
  • POSTGRES_USER, defaults to etherpad
  • POSTGRES_PASSWORD, needs a value

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts Etherpad after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like etherpad) while only the ports above are open to you.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Open source license

Etherpad is open source, released under the Apache-2.0 license. In plain terms the code is out in the open, so you're free to run it and change it to fit what you need.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Etherpad up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Etherpad is a click rather than a wall of config.