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Docker for LittleLink

Docker configuration to run LittleLink in a container.

File Structure

  • Dockerfile: Defines how the image is built using nginx:alpine
  • compose.yaml: Configuration for Docker Compose with volumes for development
  • .dockerignore: Excludes unnecessary files from the image

Technical Details

Base Image

  • Uses nginx:alpine for minimal image size (~20MB)
  • Includes gzip compression for static files
  • Optimized cache configuration for CSS, JavaScript, and images
  • Configured to forward nginx logs to Docker log collector

Volumes and Ports

  • Mounts the project root directory as a volume for live development
  • Exposes port 80 in the container, mapped to 8080 on the host

Common Use Cases

Creating Personal Link Pages for Different People

One of the main advantages of this Docker setup is how easily you can create multiple personalized instances of LittleLink:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/sethcottle/littlelink.git littlelink-john

# Customize the content for John
cd littlelink-john
# Edit index.html with John's links, customize images, etc.

# Build a Docker image for John's page
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t littlelink-john .

# Run John's page on port 8080
docker run -d --name john-links -p 8080:80 littlelink-john

For additional pages:

# Similarly for another person
git clone https://github.com/sethcottle/littlelink.git littlelink-jane
cd littlelink-jane
# Customize for Jane...

# Build and run on a different port
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t littlelink-jane .
docker run -d --name jane-links -p 8081:80 littlelink-jane

This approach allows you to:

  • Maintain separate customized sites for different people
  • Run multiple instances on different ports
  • Update each site independently
  • Easily deploy to various environments

Development vs. Production

There are two main ways to use Docker with LittleLink:

Development Workflow

In development, we use Docker Compose with mounted volumes to allow for live editing:

# Start development environment
docker compose -f docker/compose.yaml up

This configuration:

  • Mounts local files as a volume, so changes are reflected immediately
  • Requires manual browser refresh to see changes
  • Is ideal for testing and development

Production Workflow

For production, you have two options:

Option 1: Production with Docker Compose

Create a production-specific docker-compose file:

# docker/compose.prod.yaml

services:
  web:
    image: yourname/littlelink:latest
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    # Optional volume for customizable content
    volumes:
      - /path/on/server/custom-content:/usr/share/nginx/html

Deploy using:

# Build and tag the image
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t yourname/littlelink:latest .

# Run in production with compose
docker compose -f docker/compose.prod.yaml up -d

Option 2: Production with Docker Run

# Build a production image
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t yourname/littlelink:latest .

# Run in production (no volumes mounted)
docker run -d --name littlelink -p 80:80 --restart always yourname/littlelink:latest

Using Volumes in Production

You can customize the content in production by mounting a local directory:

# Prepare a directory with your custom content
mkdir -p /path/on/server/custom-content
cp -r index.html css/ images/ /path/on/server/custom-content/

# Run with the custom content mounted
docker run -d --name littlelink -p 80:80 \
  -v /path/on/server/custom-content:/usr/share/nginx/html \
  yourname/littlelink:latest

With Docker Compose:

services:
  web:
    image: yourname/littlelink:latest
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - /path/on/server/custom-content:/usr/share/nginx/html

This approach:

  • Allows content customization without rebuilding the image
  • Makes it easy to update content independently of the container

Docker Commands Reference

Development Commands

# Start in development mode
docker compose -f docker/compose.yaml up

# Start in background
docker compose -f docker/compose.yaml up -d

# Stop container
docker compose -f docker/compose.yaml down

# View logs (including HTTP request logs)
docker compose -f docker/compose.yaml logs -f

Production Commands

# Build production image
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t yourname/littlelink:latest .

# Run production container
docker run -d --name littlelink -p 80:80 yourname/littlelink:latest

# View logs for the running container
docker logs -f littlelink

Customization

Change Port

Edit docker/compose.yaml for development:

ports:
  - "8081:80"  # Change 8080 to desired port

Or specify port when running production container:

docker run -p 8081:80 yourname/littlelink:latest

Additional nginx Configuration

To modify the nginx configuration, you can edit the Dockerfile and add your own configuration:

# Example: add custom configuration
COPY docker/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Deploying to Production

Docker on VPS

# Pull image
docker pull yourname/littlelink:latest

# Run container
docker run -d --name littlelink -p 80:80 yourname/littlelink:latest

# With restart policy for auto-recovery
docker run -d --name littlelink --restart unless-stopped -p 80:80 yourname/littlelink:latest

Multiple Sites on One Server

You can run multiple LittleLink instances on the same server:

# Run first site on port 8080
docker run -d --name site1 -p 8080:80 littlelink-site1

# Run second site on port 8081
docker run -d --name site2 -p 8081:80 littlelink-site2