Request: Help to setup a dockerized Ghost environment

Developer help
1

Hello,

I am looking to dockerize your product such that it deploys ghost on a ubuntu container (What your product actually is built for). My goals are:
1- the docker image to must be able to run docker-cli commands just like as if it was installed on an ubuntu server
2- Must connect to external services (Mysql & Nginx) or run self contained (sqlite and other services)
3- Must be configurable to run in development (Sqlite) and production (Mysql)

Over the past few days, I’ve run into a few issues along the way but been able to overcome them.
I am currently at the point where it’s trying to initialize the DB but failing. (Because I’ve really done a barebones ghost install in order to avoid any interactivity with the user so as to be able to automate it.

Currently I am able to install ghost-cli and use it to install ghost.
Having been unable to find dependencies in your package.json for ghost/ghost-cli on knex-migrator, how is that being installed and/or how should I install it? (Currently doing so manually)

Questions:
1- Do you foresee any problems with my approach? Do you think all the ghost-cli commands will actually work if I have the ghost directory mounted to a host so it can survive container restarts? For example: ghost doctor, ghost update, ghost setup etc. Do those only touch files in the ghost directory? (I am assuming that)

If this is a valid approach, can you point me or guide me to:
1- How do I determine what version of knex-migrator a particular version of ghost / ghost-cli supports? I currently hardcoded installation because I can’t understand how it’s installed (I couldn’t find references to it in the ghost / ghost-cli code). So presumably this is done afterwards manually? Unsure.

2- Can I use ghost setup or ghost config to setup the different sections of the config.json file? I don’t want to be prompted, my desire is to automatically set things up.

Some information:

my ghost install:

RUN ghost install ${GHOST_VERSION} local \
    --no-prompt \
    --no-stack \
    --no-setup-nginx \
    --no-setup-systemd \
    --no-setup-mysql \
    --dir "${GHOST_INSTALL_DIR}" \
    --process local

produces. the following config:

config.development.json

{
  "url": "http://localhost:2368",
  "server": {
    "port": 2368,
    "host": "::"
  },
  "mail": {
    "transport": "Direct"
  },
  "logging": {
    "transports": [
      "file",
      "stdout"
    ]
  },
  "process": "systemd",
  "paths": {
    "contentPath": "/var/lib/ghost/content"
  }
}

config.production.json

{
  "url": "http://localhost:2368",
  "server": {
    "port": 2368,
    "host": "::"
  },
  "mail": {
    "transport": "Direct"
  },
  "logging": {
    "transports": [
      "file",
      "stdout"
    ]
  },
  "process": "systemd",
  "paths": {
    "contentPath": "/var/lib/ghost/content"
  }
}

my logs are:

[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Starting Ghost initialization...
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Environment configured:
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Content Directory: /var/lib/ghost/content
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Server Port: 2368
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Server Host: 0.0.0.0
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: URL: http://localhost:2368
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Using SQLite database
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Initializing SQLite database...
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Generating Ghost configuration for development   mode...
[2024-11-22T14:11:19+0000]: Initializing Ghost content...
[2024-11-22 14:11:20] ERROR An error has occurred applying a database migration.

An error has occurred applying a database migration.

Error ID:
    a5d77600-a8db-11ef-95ab-739e0281c27e

----------------------------------------

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'connection')
    at Object.loadConfig (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.101.2/node_modules/knex-migrator/lib/utils.js:43:15)
    at Object.sanitizeDatabaseProperties (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.101.2/core/shared/config/utils.js:64:25)
    at Object.loadNconf (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.101.2/core/shared/config/loader.js:53:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.101.2/core/shared/config/index.js:3:25)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1356:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1414:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1197:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1013:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1225:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:177:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/var/lib/ghost/versions/5.101.2/MigratorConfig.js:2:16)

npm notice 
npm notice New minor version of npm available! 10.2.4 -> 10.9.1
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v10.9.1
npm notice Run npm install -g npm@10.9.1 to update!
npm notice

Thank you in advance,
Eric Gulatee

2

I’d suggest taking a look at the unofficial Docker image as a starting point: ghost/5/debian/Dockerfile at master · docker-library/ghost · GitHub