Start Penpot automatically on boot (Solved)

[Verhoeckx]

Hello Penpot developers and users,


When I look at the docker-compose file, I notice that some services contain restart: always to automatically start on boot, but not all services do. This is especially true for the service penpot-frontend. Why is that? Shouldn’t it contain this attribute/policy?

The reason I ask, is that I would like to start Penpot when the system (re-)boots. What would be the best way to achieve this? I could of course add the attribute/policy to all the services in the docker compose file, but maybe there is a (good) reason why this hasn’t been done?

Some context: Penpot is running with Docker on RHEL 9.

Yours sincerely,

Verhoeckx

PS. I looked for a solution on the website of Penpot, but couldn’t find it.

[alotor]

The docker-compose is not the intended way to deploy Penpot in a self-hosted. That docker-compose is thought for creating a development environment and that’s why the service “main” is not started automaticaly. Usually in a developmente environment you want that service to have a terminal so you can inspect the logged output (for compilation or runtime errors etc)

Andrés wrote some nice articles about self-hosting Penpot:

Self-hosting Penpot (I)

Self-hosting is one of the most distinctive features of Penpot. Other solutions are available only via locked-in SaaS subscriptions or Mac-only proprietary desktop applications. You are forced to trust the vendor and hope they make good use of your data, and that it will always be available when you need it. Today, more and more companies (especially big ones, but also small ones or even individuals) tend to prefer keeping their toolkit hosted internally, for full control and security. Even mor…

Self-hosting Penpot (II)

So you have decided you want to use Docker for your own instance of Penpot (otherwise read the first part of the article…). Self-hosting Penpot with Docker The first step is to decide what kind of machine you want to install Penpot on (local or cloud, operating system, version). This will determine the “flavor” of the Docker version you need. Docker Desktop This is the only option to have Docker on Windows or MacOS. Recently, it’s also been made available in Linux, in the most popular dist…

[Verhoeckx]

Oh, sorry but I have the impression that we do not completely understand each other. I have the impression that you think I’m running Penpot on a desktop? What do you exactly mean with self-hosted? My interpretation of self-hosted, is that you run Penpot on a server, exactly the same as Penpot itself is doing (or aren’t they using Docker in production?).

In my case I’m running Penpot on a server together with other Docker applications (i.a. Nextcloud AIO and OpenVSCode). The server runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and when I reboot the server all the containers are automatically started except those of Penpot.

To be more precise:

• Container penpot-redis - start automatically (restart: always)
• Container penpot-postgres - start automatically (restart: always)
• Container penpot-mailcatch - start automatically (restart: always)
• Container penpot-exporter - does not start automatically
• Container penpot-backend - does not start automatically
• Container penpot-frontend - does not start automatically

Why has the attribute restart: always not been added to the containers penpot-exporter, penpot-backend and penpot-frontend? Is this a bug or is there a good reason for not doing so?

So solve my problem, I could of course add the attribute to the other services, but I think/believe they should be there in the first place? Ideally, a docker-compose file should not be changed after downloading, because this makes updating an application cumbersome (okay, this is bit of an exaggeration).

If your are going to change the docker-compose file, it’s maybe also a good idea to add the name directive for giving the instance a project name. This way you don’t have to add it ( -p penpot) to the docker compose command (but this maybe not a good idea when you are going to run multiple instances of Penpot).

[Verhoeckx]

Good news: a developer of Penpot has added the attribute restart: always to all services!
This means that all containers are now started automatically when the system reboots! Yeah !

You can read about here.