KBVE / docker-discord-bot

The newest Red-Discordbot in a convenient container

Red-DiscordBot V3

The newest Red-DiscordBot in a convenient multi-arch container

Why This Image?

There are many reasons that this image is better (or as good as) the others out there:

• Doesn't run as root: You can specify exactly which user you want the bot to run and create files as.
• Easy to set up: Just run one docker command and your new bot is ready to join your server.
• Always up-to-date: The bot will always update itself to the latest PyPi release on every (re)start.
• Runs on most servers: Can run on a normal x86-64 server, as well as arm(64) devices (Raspberry Pi).
• Update notifications: Integrates with UpdateNotify to notify you when there is a Red-DiscordBot or Docker image update ready.
• It's pretty small: Image size has been reduced as much as possible, only including the bare minimum to run Red-DiscordBot as well as a vast majority of 3rd party cogs.

Quick Start

Just do this:

docker run -v /local_folder_for_persistence:/data -e TOKEN=bot_token -e PREFIX=. phasecorex/red-discordbot

Red-DiscordBot will start up with the specified token and prefix, and after updating, it will show the invite URL. Use this to add the bot to your server.

Here is an explanation of the command:

• -v /local_folder_for_persistence:/data: Folder to persist Red-DiscordBot data. You could also use a named volume.
• -e TOKEN=bot_token: The bot token you want Red-DiscordBot to use.
• -e PREFIX=.: The prefix you want Red-DiscordBot to use. You can specify more than one prefix by additionally using the environment variables PREFIX2, PREFIX3, PREFIX4, and PREFIX5.

Note: For the first run (with a new /data mount), the container might take a little bit longer to start while the Red-DiscordBot software is updated. Subsequent (re)starts will be pretty fast.

Optional environment variables to make your life easier:

• -e TZ=America/Detroit: Specify a timezone. By default, this is UTC.
• -e PUID=1000: Specify the user Red-DiscordBot will run as. All files it creates will be owned by this user on the host. By default, this is 1000.
• -e PGID=1000: Can also be specified if you want a specific group. By default, this is whatever PUID is set to (which by default, is 1000).

Once you like how it's working, you can add these:

• --name red-discordbot: A nice name for the docker container, for easy management.
• -d: Run container in the background. The name set above comes in handy for managing it.

You can also remove the OWNER, TOKEN, and PREFIXes after the initial run, as they are saved to the bots config. This allows for you to use the [p]set prefix command, and makes subsequent runs as simple as:

docker run -v /local_folder_for_persistence:/data phasecorex/red-discordbot

Enjoy!

One Time Configurations

A few of the environment variables can be used to configure Red-DiscordBot, but are persisted to the bots internal configuration. Thus, once they are used once, you are free to remove them from your Docker run command or Docker compose file. These are the environment variables:

• OWNER: To set a new owner of the bot
• TOKEN: To set a new token for the bot
• PREFIX (as well as PREFIX2-PREFIX5): To set new prefixes for the bot

If you see any of the following messages, you know that the setting were applied successfully, and you're free to remove the environment variable from your setup:

Setting bot owner...
Setting bot token...
Setting bot prefix(es)...

You can of course just leave the environment variables in place, but if you want a faster startup, you can remove the environment variables.

Docker Compose

As with any Docker run command, you can also specify it as a docker-compose.yml file for easier management. Here is an example:

version: "3.2"
services:
  redbot:
    container_name: redbot
    image: phasecorex/red-discordbot
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./redbot:/data
    environment:
      - TOKEN=your_bot_token_goes_here
      - PREFIX=.
      - TZ=America/Detroit
      - PUID=1000

And again, subsequent runs you can omit the OWNER, TOKEN, and PREFIXes from the docker-compose.yml file.

Updates

If you find out that Red-DiscordBot was updated, simply issue the [p]restart command. Red-DiscordBot will gracefully shut down, update itself, and then start back up.

Consider using the UpdateNotify cog I created to get notifications when Red-DiscordBot (or this Docker image) updates!

More Advanced Stuff

Niceness

By default, Red-DiscordBot (and the Lavalink audio server) will run at the niceness that Docker itself is running at (usually zero). If you would like to change that, simply define the NICENESS environment variable:

• NICENESS=10

Niceness has a range of -20 (highest priority, least nice to other processes) to 19 (lowest priority, very nice to other processes). Setting this to a value less than the default (higher priority) will require that you start the container with --cap-add=SYS_NICE. Setting it above the default will not need that capability set. If you are on a lower powered device or shared VPS that allows it, this option may help with audio stuttering when set to a lower (negative) value.

Dashboard (or other RPC software)

Any software that needs to communicate to Red-DiscordBot via RPC can only do so when the container is running in host networking mode. Since the RPC port only listens on localhost (for security purposes), it would normally only be listening inside its own container. Setting the container to host networking mode allows for other software (running on the host) to connect successfully.

redbot-setup

redbot-setup can be run manually, in case you want to set up the bot yourself or to convert it's datastore. It can only be run in interactive mode, like so:

docker run -it --rm -v /local_folder_for_persistence:/data phasecorex/red-discordbot redbot-setup [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

By default, Red-DiscordBot will use the JSON datastore. If you would like to use a different datastore (Postgres for example), specify it in the STORAGE_TYPE environment variable:

docker run -it --rm -v /local_folder_for_persistence:/data -e STORAGE_TYPE=postgres phasecorex/red-discordbot redbot-setup [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

You can check the official Red-DiscordBot documentation to find out what datastores are available. The example on the page looks like this:

python -m pip install -U Red-DiscordBot[postgres]
                                        ^^^^^^^^
                                        Set STORAGE_TYPE to this value

You can also do this on your first run if you want to set up the bot to use a non-JSON datastore right off the bat. Do note that you MUST use the instance name of docker for things to work properly.

Migrating From a Non-Docker Environment

Migrating to this container should be fairly easy. Simply copy your cogs and core folder into the /data folder that is to be mounted.

If you were using a non-JSON datastore, you will need to copy your config.json file (usually found in ~/.config/Red-DiscordBot/config.json) into the /data folder. Be sure to set the DATA_PATH to /data, and double check if you need to update the STORAGE_DETAILS host value.

Version Freeze

By default, Red-DiscordBot will check for updates on each (re)start of the container. If for some reason you want to have Red-DiscordBot stay at a certain version, you can use the REDBOT_VERSION environment variable to specify this. The format is the same as a version specifier for a pip package:

• REDBOT_VERSION="==3.5.0": Version Matching. Must be version 3.5.0
• REDBOT_VERSION="~=3.5.0": Compatible release. Same as >= 3.5.0, == 3.5.*

Extra Arguments

The environment variable EXTRA_ARGS can be used to append extra arguments to the bots startup command. This can be used for a plethora of things, such as:

• --no-cogs: Starts Red with no cogs loaded, only core
• --dry-run: Makes Red quit with code 0 just before the login. This is useful for testing the boot process.
• --debug: Sets the loggers level as debug
• And many other, more powerful arguments.

When running directly from the terminal, specify multiple arguments at once by surrounding them all with double quotes:

• -e EXTRA_ARGS="--no-cogs --dry-run --debug"

If using a compose file, do not use quotes:

environment:
  TZ: America/Detroit
  PUID: 1000
  PREFIX: .
  EXTRA_ARGS: --no-cogs --dry-run --debug

or

environment:
  - TZ=America/Detroit
  - PUID=1000
  - PREFIX=.
  - EXTRA_ARGS=--no-cogs --dry-run --debug

The typical user will not need to use this environment variable.

Custom Red-DiscordBot Package

Intended for developers or users who know what they're doing, the CUSTOM_REDBOT_PACKAGE environment variable allows for specifying exactly what package pip should install. Specifying this environment variable will also ignore the STORAGE_TYPE and REDBOT_VERSION variables, as it's assumed you will provide any of that information in this environment variable. This can be useful for testing the bleeding edge Red-DiscordBot updates from GitHub:

• CUSTOM_REDBOT_PACKAGE=git+https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot.git
• CUSTOM_REDBOT_PACKAGE=git+https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot.git@7d30e3de14264b86b5d18bac619ad476473d4467

The typical user SHOULD NOT use this. If you do use this environment variable, little to no support will be provided, as I assume you know what you are doing. If you want to switch back to a regular Red-DiscordBot install, you will need remove this environment variable, and you most likely will need to delete the venv folder inside the /data folder. If you don't, it may see that your custom version is newer than the PyPi official release, and it will not downgrade automatically.

Extending This Image

This image will run Red-DiscordBot as a non-root user. This is great, until you want to install any cogs that depend on external libraries or pip packages. To get around this, the image will run Red-DiscordBot in a python virtual environment. You can see this in the folder /data/venv. This allows for Red-DiscordBot to install any package it wants as the non-root user. This also allows for Red-DiscordBot to always be up-to-date when it first launches.

Some pip packages will require external libraries, so some of the popular ones (the ones I need for my bot) are included in the extra/extra-audio tag. If you find that Red-DiscordBot cannot install a popular cog, you can either let me know for including the package in this tag, or you can extend this image, running apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends to install your dependencies:

FROM phasecorex/red-discordbot

RUN apt-get update; \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        your \
        extra \
        packages \
        here \
    ; \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*;

No need to define anything else, as the VOLUME and CMD will be the defaults.

Image Tags

core (Alias: noaudio)

This tag contains the bare minimum to run Red-DiscordBot (no Java, so no Audio cog support).

core-audio (Aliases: latest, audio)

The default version. It's the same as core, but with Java included so that you can use the Audio cog.

extra

Same as core, but it has added packages that at least make these cogs work:

• CrabRave
• NotSoBot
• ReTrigger (OCR feature)

But remember, no Java, so no Audio cog support.

extra-audio (Alias: full)

Same as extra, but with Java included so that you can use the Audio cog.

Basically, pick if you want bare minimum (core) or extra 3rd party cog support (extra), then add the "-audio" to the tag if you want the Audio cog to work.

core-pylav (Alias: pylav, latest-pylav)

Same as core, but it adds the PyLav cogs to the bot for users using the JSON driver.

Note If you are not using the JSON config driver with Red, PyLav Cogs can be loaded after running [p]addpath /data/pylav/cogs If you use the JSON config driver, this image will automatically install the PyLav repo and cogs for you. This image will always keep the PyLav dependencies and cog up to date on every restart.

Make sure to read pylav.yaml Setup (Docker) and Docker Compose to see the mountable volumes, and environment variables.

Warning PyLav requires a PostgresSQL Database to store its data, this is completely independent to Red's Postgres config driver. PyLav requires adittional configuration not covered here, make sure to follow the instructions in its SETUP documentation.

extra-pylav (Alias: full-pylav)

Same as extra, but it adds the PyLav cogs to the bot for users using the JSON driver.

Note If you are not using the JSON config driver with Red, PyLav Cogs can be loaded after running [p]addpath /data/pylav/cogs If you use the JSON config driver, this image will automatically install the PyLav repo and cogs for you. This image will always keep the PyLav dependencies and cog up to date on every restart.

Make sure to read pylav.yaml Setup (Docker) and Docker Compose to see the mountable volumes, and environment variables.

Warning PyLav requires a PostgresSQL Database to store its data, this is completely independent to Red's Postgres config driver. PyLav requires adittional configuration not covered here, make sure to follow the instructions in its SETUP documentation.