Docker Support

[!WARNING] Breaking Changes

The docker image now runs as user 1001 and group 1001. Make sure that the permissions on your volumes allow user 1001 to read and write to them or see the User section below for other options, or if you're not sure.

SLEEP_TIME is now set to -1 by default. This means the image will run once and exit. If you were relying on the previous default, you'll need to explicitly set the SLEEP_TIME environment variable to 30m to replicate the previous behavior.

The docker image now ignores the values in Settings.json for Books and InProgress. You can now change the folder that books are saved to by using the LIBATION_BOOKS_DIR environment variable.

Disclaimer

The docker image is provided as-is. We hope it can be useful to you but it is not officially supported.

Configuration

Configuration in Libation is handled by two files, AccountsSettings.json and Settings.json. These files can usually be found in the Libation folder in your user's home directory. The easiest way to configure these is to run the desktop version of Libation and then copy them into a folder, such as /opt/libation/config, that you'll volume mount into the image. Settings.json is technically optional, and, if not provided, Libation will run using the default settings. Additionally, the Books and InProgress settings in Settings.json will be ignored and the image will instead substitute it's own values.

Adding Audible accounts without the GUI

If you run Libation on a server or in Docker and do not want to copy AccountsSettings.json from a desktop install, you can create or update accounts with LibationCli (same binary as in the image under /libation/LibationCli):

import-account — Import an account from a JSON file exported by mkb79's audible-cli (or Libation's own compatible export). Example:
LibationCli import-account /path/to/account.json
login-external — Browser-based sign-in: the CLI prints an Audible login URL; you open it in a normal browser, sign in, then paste the final URL from the address bar back into the terminal. Example:
LibationCli login-external --account [email protected] --locale us
If standard input is not a TTY (for example in some automation), pass the final URL with --response-url "https://..." instead of pasting interactively.
list-accounts — List configured accounts and whether each has valid stored credentials (and scan-on/off). Example:
LibationCli list-accounts or LibationCli list-accounts --bare for tab-separated output.

For full syntax, overrides, and the --libationFiles option (or the LIBATION_FILES_DIR environment variable) when your Libation data directory is not the default, see Command Line Interface.

Docker tip: The entrypoint script copies your mounted config into an internal path before running LibationCli. The most reliable way to run account commands inside the same layout the container uses is to docker exec into an already running Libation container (so AccountsSettings.json and appsettings.json are already in place), then run /libation/LibationCli import-account ... or /libation/LibationCli login-external .... Alternatively, run LibationCli on any host where you can point --libationFiles (or LIBATION_FILES_DIR) at the folder that you later mount as /config on the server.

Running

Once the configuration files are copied, the docker image can be run with the following command.

bash

sudo docker run -d \
  -v /opt/libation/config:/config \
  -v /opt/libation/books:/data \
  --name libation \
  --restart=always \
  rmcrackan/libation:latest

By default the container will scan for new books once and download any new ones. This is configurable by passing in a value for the SLEEP_TIME environment variable. For example, if you pass in 10m it will keep running, scan for new books, and download them every 10 minutes.

bash

sudo docker run -d \
  -v /opt/libation/config:/config \
  -v /opt/libation/books:/data \
  -e SLEEP_TIME='10m' \
  --name libation \
  --restart=always \
  rmcrackan/libation:latest

Environment Variables

Env Var	Default	Description
SLEEP_TIME	-1	Length of time to sleep before doing another scan/download. Set to -1 to run one.
LIBATION_BOOKS_DIR	/data	Folder where books will be saved
LIBATION_CONFIG_DIR	/config	Folder to read configuration from.
LIBATION_DB_DIR	/db	Optional folder to load database from. If not mounted, will load database from `LIBATION_CONFIG_DIR`.
LIBATION_DB_FILE		Name of database file to load. By default it will look for all `.db` files and load one if there is only one present.
LIBATION_CREATE_DB	true	Whether or not the image should create a database file if none are found.
LIBATION_CONNECTION_STRING		Connection string for Postgresql. If not present, Libation uses the default sqlite.

User

This docker image runs as user 1001. In order for the image to function properly, user 1001 must be able to read and write the volumes that are mounted in. If they are not, you will see errors, including sqlite error, Microsoft.Data.Sqlite.SqliteException, unable to open database file, Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.DbUpdateException

If you're not sure what your user number is, check the output of the id command. Docker should normally run with the number of the user who configured and ran it.

If you want to change the user the image runs as, you can specify -u <uid>:<gid>. For example, to run it as user 2000 and group 3000, you could do the following:

bash

sudo docker run -d \
  -u 2000:3000 \
  -v /opt/libation/config:/config \
  -v /opt/libation/books:/data \
  --name libation \
  --restart=always \
  rmcrackan/libation:latest

If the user it's running as is correct, and it still cannot write, be sure to check whether the files and/or folders might be owned by the wrong user. You can use the chown command to change the owner of the file to the correct user and group number, for example: chown -R 1001:1001 /mnt/audiobooks /mnt/libation-config

Troubleshooting

Library scan appears to hang in Docker: Try setting ImportEpisodes to false in Settings.json on your config volume and run again. That turns off the extra episode/podcast catalog requests during import and helps narrow down whether the stall is in that path versus auth or the network.

Advanced Database Options

The docker image supports an optional database mount location defined by LIBATION_DB_DIR. This allows the database to be mounted as read/write, while allowing the rest of the configuration files to be mounted as read only. This is specifically useful if running in Kubernetes where you can use Configmaps and Secrets to define the configuration. If the LIBATION_DB_DIR is mounted, it will be used, otherwise it will look for the database in LIBATION_CONFIG_DIR. If it does not find the database in the expected location, it will attempt to make an empty database there.

Getting Help

As mentioned above: docker is not officially supported. I'm adding this at the bottom of the page for anyone serious enough to have read this far. If you've tried everything above and would still like help, you can open an issue. Please include [docker] in the title. There are also some docker folks who have offered occasional assistance who you can tag within your issue: @ducamagnifico , @wtanksleyjr , @CLHatch.

Reminder that these are just friendly users who are sometimes around. They're not our customer support.