Dockerfile for LedgerSMB Docker image

• 1.8 - Preview version for the 1.8 branch
• 1.7, 1.7.x, latest - Latest official release from 1.7 branch
• 1.6, 1.6.x - Latest official release from 1.6 branch
• 1.5, 1.5.30 - Last official release from 1.5 branch
• 1.4, 1.4.42 - Last official release from 1.4 branch
• master - Master branch from git, unstable

Containers supporting the development process are provided through the ledgersmb-dev-docker project. See https://github.com/ledgersmb/ledgersmb-dev-docker/blob/master/README.md#getting-started.

LedgerSMB is a user-friendly accounting and ERP solution for small to mid-size businesses. It comes with support for many languages and support for different locales.

The project aims to be the solution a start-up never outgrows.

This image is designed to be used in conjunction with a running PostgreSQL instance (such as may be provided through a separate image).

This image exposes port 5762 running a Starman HTTP application server. We do recommend not exposing this port publicly, because

1. The Starman author recommends not exposing it
2. We strongly recommend TLS encryption of all application traffic

While the exposed port can be used for quick evaluation, it's recommended to add the TLS layer by applying Nginx or Apache as reverse proxy.

Enabling optional functionalities such as outgoing e-mail and printing could require additional setup of a mail service or CUPS printer service.

This image can be installed either automatically with the Docker compose file or manually with docker only.

This image provides docker-compose.yml which can be used to pull related images, install them, establish an internal network for their communications, adjust environment variables, start and stop LedgerSMB. The only instructions required, after the optional edition of the file to adjust the environment variables, are:

 $ docker-compose pull
 $ docker-compose up

This will set up two containers: (1) a PostgreSQL container with persistent storage which is retained between container updates and (2) a LedgerSMB container configured to connect to the PostgreSQL container as its database server.

The database username and password are:

   username: postgres
   password: abc

From here, follow the steps as detailed in the instructions for preparing for first use.

This section assumes availability of a PostgreSQL server to attach to the LedgerSMB image as the database server.

 $ docker run -d -p 5762:5762 --name myledger \
              -e POSTGRES_HOST=<ip/hostname> ledgersmb/ledgersmb:latest

This command maps port 5762 of your container to port 5762 in your host. The web application inside the container should now be accessible through http://localhost:5762/setup.pl and http://localhost:5762/login.pl.

Below are more variables which determine container configuration, like POSTGRES_HOST above.

• Visit http://myledger:5762/setup.pl.
• Log in with the "postgres" user and the password abc as given above - or with the credentials of your own database server in case of a manual setup - and provide the name of a company (= database name) you want to create.
• Go over the steps presented in the browser

Once you have completed the setup steps, you have a fully functional LedgerSMB instance running!

Visit http://localhost:5762/login.pl to log in and get started.

No persistant data is stored in the LedgerSMB container.

All LedgerSMB data is stored in Postgres, so you can stop/destroy/run a new LedgerSMB container as often as you want.

The LedgerSMB image uses several environment variables. They are all optional.

Default: postgres

Specifies the hostname of the PostgreSQL server to connect to. If you use a PostgreSQL image, set it to the name of that image.

Default: 5432

Port on which the PostgreSQL server is running.

Default: lsmb

Set this if you want to automatically log in to a particular LedgerSMB database without needing to enter the name of that database on the login.pl login screen.

Default: 5

Set this if you want to run in a memory-constrained environment. E.g. set it to 2 when running in a 1 GB memory setup. Please do note that this may adversely affect the performance experience of users.

These variables are used to set outgoing SMTP defaults.

• SSMTP_ROOT (config: Root -- DEPRECATED)
• SSMTP_MAILHUB (config: Mailhub)
• SSMTP_HOSTNAME (config: Hostname)
• SSMTP_USE_STARTTLS (config: UseSTARTTLS)
• SSMTP_AUTH_USER (config: AuthUser)
• SSMTP_AUTH_PASS (config: AuthPass)
• SSMTP_AUTH_METHOD (config: AuthMethod -- DEPRECATED)
• SSMTP_FROMLINE_OVERRIDE (config: FromLineOverride -- DEPRECATED)

SSMTP_MAILHUB defaults to the default docker0 interface, so if your host is already configured to relay mail, this should relay successfully with only the root and hostname set.

Use the other environment variables to relay mail through a different host. Use the ssmtp.conf man page to look up the meaning and function of each of the mail configuration keys.

As of 1.8.0, the image is based on Debian Buster instead of Debian Stretch; with Buster, the ssmtp program has been removed from Debian, this image had to change strategy. The main application always came with built-in e-mail yet with the deprecation, the abilities have expanded.

The following parameters are now supported to set mail preferences:

• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPHOST
• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPPORT
• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPTLS
• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPSENDER_HOSTNAME
• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPUSER
• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPPASS
• LSMB_MAIL_SMTPAUTHMECH

Currently the LedgerSMB installation is in /srv/ledgersmb and the startup & config script is /usr/bin/start.sh.

If you have any problems with or questions about this image or LedgerSMB, please contact us on the mailing list or through a GitHub issue.

You can also reach some of the official LedgerSMB maintainers via the #ledgersmb IRC channel on Freenode, or on the bridged Matrix room in #ledgersmb:matrix.org. The Riot.im Matrix client is highly recommended.

You are invited to contribute new features, fixes, or updates, large or small; we are always thrilled to receive pull requests, and do our best to process them as fast as we can.