linuxserver/mastodon repository overview

The LinuxServer.io⁠ team brings you another container release featuring:

• regular and timely application updates
• easy user mappings (PGID, PUID)
• custom base image with s6 overlay
• weekly base OS updates with common layers across the entire LinuxServer.io ecosystem to minimise space usage, down time and bandwidth
• regular security updates

Find us at:

• Blog⁠ - all the things you can do with our containers including How-To guides, opinions and much more!
• Discord⁠ - realtime support / chat with the community and the team.
• Discourse⁠ - post on our community forum.
• GitHub⁠ - view the source for all of our repositories.
• Open Collective⁠ - please consider helping us by either donating or contributing to our budget

⁠linuxserver/mastodon⁠

Mastodon⁠ is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones..

⁠Supported Architectures

We utilise the docker manifest for multi-platform awareness. More information is available from docker here⁠ and our announcement here⁠.

Simply pulling lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest should retrieve the correct image for your arch, but you can also pull specific arch images via tags.

The architectures supported by this image are:

⁠Version Tags

This image provides various versions that are available via tags. Please read the descriptions carefully and exercise caution when using unstable or development tags.

⁠Application Setup

We provide aliases for the common commands that execute in the correct context so that environment variables from secrets are available to them:

• To generate keys for SECRET_KEY_BASE & OTP_SECRET run docker run --rm -it --entrypoint /bin/bash lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest generate-secret once for each.

• To generate keys for VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY & VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY run docker run --rm -it --entrypoint /bin/bash lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest generate-vapid

• To generate keys for ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_DETERMINISTIC_KEY, ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_KEY_DERIVATION_SALT, & ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_PRIMARY_KEY run docker run --rm -it --entrypoint /bin/bash lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest generate-active-record

Both of the secret generation aliases above can be run without any other setup having been carried out.

• To use tootctl you can run something like docker exec -it lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon /tootctl <command>

Using tootctl requires you to complete the initial Mastodon configuration first.

This container requires separate postgres and redis instances to run.

We support all of the official environment variables⁠ for configuration. In place of adding them all to your run/compose you can use an env file such as this example⁠ from the upstream project.

For more information check out the mastodon documentation⁠.

⁠Running separate sidekiq instances

It is currently only supported to run a single queue per container instance or all queues in a single container instance.

All containers must share the same /config mount and be on a common docker network.

⁠NO_CHOWN Option

On larger Mastodon instances, our init process to verify that permissions are set correctly can noticeably slow down the container startup. If you are experiencing this, you can set NO_CHOWN to true to skip that step of the init.

Do NOT set this on first run of the container. If you enable this option you are taking full responsibility for ensuring that the permissions in your /config mount are correct. If you're even slightly unsure, don't set it.

⁠Strict reverse proxies

This image automatically redirects to https with a self-signed certificate. If you are using a reverse proxy which validates certificates, you need to disable this check for the container⁠.

⁠Usage

To help you get started creating a container from this image you can either use docker-compose or the docker cli.

⁠docker-compose (recommended, click here for more info⁠)

---
services:
  mastodon:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest
    container_name: mastodon
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - LOCAL_DOMAIN=example.com
      - REDIS_HOST=redis
      - REDIS_PORT=6379
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_USER=mastodon
      - DB_NAME=mastodon
      - DB_PASS=mastodon
      - DB_PORT=5432
      - ES_ENABLED=false
      - ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_PRIMARY_KEY=
      - ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_DETERMINISTIC_KEY=
      - ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_KEY_DERIVATION_SALT=
      - SECRET_KEY_BASE=
      - OTP_SECRET=
      - VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY=
      - VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY=
      - SMTP_SERVER=mail.example.com
      - SMTP_PORT=25
      - SMTP_LOGIN=
      - SMTP_PASSWORD=
      - [email protected]
      - S3_ENABLED=false
      - WEB_DOMAIN=mastodon.example.com #optional
      - ES_HOST=es #optional
      - ES_PORT=9200 #optional
      - ES_USER=elastic #optional
      - ES_PASS=elastic #optional
      - S3_BUCKET= #optional
      - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID= #optional
      - AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY= #optional
      - S3_ALIAS_HOST= #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_ONLY=false #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_QUEUE= #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_DEFAULT=false #optional
      - SIDEKIQ_THREADS=5 #optional
      - DB_POOL=5 #optional
      - NO_CHOWN= #optional
      - MASTODON_PROMETHEUS_EXPORTER_ENABLED= #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/mastodon/config:/config
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
      - 9394:9394 #optional
    restart: unless-stopped

⁠docker cli (click here for more info⁠)

docker run -d \
  --name=mastodon \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e TZ=Etc/UTC \
  -e LOCAL_DOMAIN=example.com \
  -e REDIS_HOST=redis \
  -e REDIS_PORT=6379 \
  -e DB_HOST=db \
  -e DB_USER=mastodon \
  -e DB_NAME=mastodon \
  -e DB_PASS=mastodon \
  -e DB_PORT=5432 \
  -e ES_ENABLED=false \
  -e ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_PRIMARY_KEY= \
  -e ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_DETERMINISTIC_KEY= \
  -e ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_KEY_DERIVATION_SALT= \
  -e SECRET_KEY_BASE= \
  -e OTP_SECRET= \
  -e VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY= \
  -e VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY= \
  -e SMTP_SERVER=mail.example.com \
  -e SMTP_PORT=25 \
  -e SMTP_LOGIN= \
  -e SMTP_PASSWORD= \
  -e [email protected] \
  -e S3_ENABLED=false \
  -e WEB_DOMAIN=mastodon.example.com `#optional` \
  -e ES_HOST=es `#optional` \
  -e ES_PORT=9200 `#optional` \
  -e ES_USER=elastic `#optional` \
  -e ES_PASS=elastic `#optional` \
  -e S3_BUCKET= `#optional` \
  -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID= `#optional` \
  -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY= `#optional` \
  -e S3_ALIAS_HOST= `#optional` \
  -e SIDEKIQ_ONLY=false `#optional` \
  -e SIDEKIQ_QUEUE= `#optional` \
  -e SIDEKIQ_DEFAULT=false `#optional` \
  -e SIDEKIQ_THREADS=5 `#optional` \
  -e DB_POOL=5 `#optional` \
  -e NO_CHOWN= `#optional` \
  -e MASTODON_PROMETHEUS_EXPORTER_ENABLED= `#optional` \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 443:443 \
  -p 9394:9394 `#optional` \
  -v /path/to/mastodon/config:/config \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest

⁠Parameters

Containers are configured using parameters passed at runtime (such as those above). These parameters are separated by a colon and indicate <external>:<internal> respectively. For example, -p 8080:80 would expose port 80 from inside the container to be accessible from the host's IP on port 8080 outside the container.

⁠Environment variables from files (Docker secrets)

You can set any environment variable from a file by using a special prepend FILE__.

As an example:

-e FILE__MYVAR=/run/secrets/mysecretvariable

Will set the environment variable MYVAR based on the contents of the /run/secrets/mysecretvariable file.

⁠Umask for running applications

For all of our images we provide the ability to override the default umask settings for services started within the containers using the optional -e UMASK=022 setting. Keep in mind umask is not chmod it subtracts from permissions based on it's value it does not add. Please read up here⁠ before asking for support.

⁠User / Group Identifiers

When using volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can arise between the host OS and the container, we avoid this issue by allowing you to specify the user PUID and group PGID.

Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.

In this instance PUID=1000 and PGID=1000, to find yours use id your_user as below:

id your_user

Example output:

uid=1000(your_user) gid=1000(your_user) groups=1000(your_user)

⁠Docker Mods

We publish various Docker Mods⁠ to enable additional functionality within the containers. The list of Mods available for this image (if any) as well as universal mods that can be applied to any one of our images can be accessed via the dynamic badges above.

⁠Support Info

• Shell access whilst the container is running:

  docker exec -it mastodon /bin/bash
  

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• To monitor the logs of the container in realtime:

  docker logs -f mastodon
  

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• Container version number:

  docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' mastodon
  

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• Image version number:

  docker inspect -f '{{ index .Config.Labels "build_version" }}' lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest
  

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⁠Updating Info

Most of our images are static, versioned, and require an image update and container recreation to update the app inside. With some exceptions (noted in the relevant readme.md), we do not recommend or support updating apps inside the container. Please consult the Application Setup⁠ section above to see if it is recommended for the image.

Below are the instructions for updating containers:

⁠Via Docker Compose

• Update images:

  • All images:

    docker-compose pull
    

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  • Single image:

    docker-compose pull mastodon
    

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• Update containers:

  • All containers:

    docker-compose up -d
    

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  • Single container:

    docker-compose up -d mastodon
    

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• You can also remove the old dangling images:

  docker image prune
  

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⁠Via Docker Run

• Update the image:

  docker pull lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest
  

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• Stop the running container:

  docker stop mastodon
  

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• Delete the container:

  docker rm mastodon
  

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• Recreate a new container with the same docker run parameters as instructed above (if mapped correctly to a host folder, your /config folder and settings will be preserved)

• You can also remove the old dangling images:

  docker image prune
  

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⁠Image Update Notifications - Diun (Docker Image Update Notifier)

⁠Building locally

If you want to make local modifications to these images for development purposes or just to customize the logic:

git clone https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-mastodon.git
cd docker-mastodon
docker build \
  --no-cache \
  --pull \
  -t lscr.io/linuxserver/mastodon:latest .

The ARM variants can be built on x86_64 hardware and vice versa using lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static

docker run --rm --privileged lscr.io/linuxserver/qemu-static --reset

Once registered you can define the dockerfile to use with -f Dockerfile.aarch64.

⁠Versions

• 21.10.25: - Add prometheus exporter support.
• 20.10.25: - Add vips-heif.
• 08.07.25: - Rebase to Alpine 3.22.
• 06.06.25: - Rebase to Alpine 3.21, replace deprecated imagemagick with vips.
• 08.10.24: - Rebase to Alpine 3.20, enable Active Record Encryption⁠. Existing users should update their nginx confs to avoid http2 deprecation warnings.
• 21.09.23: - Rebase to Alpine 3.18, migrate to s6v3.
• 25.05.23: - Adjust apk flags.
• 09.02.23: - Add Glitch branch.
• 09.01.23: - Updated nginx conf to fix bring inline with Mastodon configuration (fixes Elk integration).
• 19.12.22: - Support separate sidekiq queue instances.
• 05.11.22: - Initial Release.