Files
docker-seafile-client/README.md
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Maxim Shulga e6034a69a6 Read the environment with typed parsers and apply the documented defaults
set_defaults() assigned os.getenv() results directly, which overwrote the
argparse defaults with None whenever a variable was unset. A default container
therefore ran "seaf-cli config -k delete_confirm_threshold -v None", and the
same for upload_limit and download_limit: none of the three documented
defaults were ever applied.

SEAFILE_UID and SEAFILE_GID had a second problem. argparse type=int applies
only to command line flags, never to set_defaults, so both stayed strings.
The check in setup_uid compares them against pwd integers, and a string is
never equal to one, so usermod ran on every start.

dsc/config.py reads each variable with its documented default and rejects a
malformed or negative value at startup, naming the variable, instead of
passing it on. An empty variable counts as unset.

Booleans are now rendered as true and false rather than Python's True and
False. The daemon reads disable_verify_certificate with its boolean accessor,
which does not recognise the capitalised form. I could not run the daemon to
confirm the previous value's effect, since the AppImage is x86_64 only.

seaf-cli is no longer given a None value for any option.
2026-08-02 17:44:57 -07:00

5.0 KiB

docker-seafile-client

Docker image for Seafile CLI client.

Image on Docker Hub: snegov/seafile-client.

Docker-compose example:

Also available as a ready-to-use compose.example.yaml.

services:
  seafile-client:
    restart: always
    image: snegov/seafile-client:0.0.13
    environment:
      LIBRARY_ID: "79867cbf-2944-488d-9105-852463ecdf9e:my_library"
      SERVER_HOST: seafile.example.com
      USERNAME: user
      PASSWORD: password
      SEAFILE_UID: 1000
      SEAFILE_GID: 100
    hostname: dsc
    volumes:
      - /home/johndow/seafile:/dsc/seafile
      - sync-data:/dsc/seafile-data
    container_name: seafile-client

volumes:
  sync-data:

Environment variables:

  • LIBRARY_ID - library to sync, ID or name. Multiple libraries could be separated by colon :.
  • SERVER_HOST - hostname of your Seafile server, eg: seafile.example.com. If you're using non-standard port, you can specify it here, eg: seafile.example.com:8080.
  • USERNAME / PASSWORD - credentials to access Seafile server.
  • PASSWORD_FILE - path to a file holding the password, for Docker Compose and Swarm secrets. Use either PASSWORD or PASSWORD_FILE, never both.
  • TOKEN / TOKEN_FILE - an API token to authenticate with instead of a password. A token takes precedence over a password and can be revoked on the server. Use either TOKEN or TOKEN_FILE, never both.
  • SEAFILE_UID / SEAFILE_GID - UID/GID of user inside container. You can use it to set permissions on synced files. Default values are 1000 / 1000.
  • DELETE_CONFIRM_THRESHOLD - represents the number of files that require confirmation before being deleted simultaneously. Default value is 500.
  • DISABLE_VERIFY_CERTIFICATE - set to true to disable server's certificate verification. Default value is false. Booleans accept true/false, 1/0, yes/no and on/off, in any case.
  • UPLOAD_LIMIT / DOWNLOAD_LIMIT - upload/download speed limit in B/s (bytes per second). Default values are 0 (unlimited).

Numeric variables must be whole, non-negative numbers. A malformed or negative value stops the container at startup with a message naming the variable, rather than being passed on to the Seafile client.

Using Docker secrets:

Mount the secret and point PASSWORD_FILE at it, so the password never enters the environment:

services:
  seafile-client:
    environment:
      PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/seafile_password
    secrets:
      - seafile_password

secrets:
  seafile_password:
    file: ./seafile_password.txt

A trailing newline in the file is ignored; everything else, including surrounding spaces, is part of the secret.

The client authenticates seaf-cli with an API token rather than the account password, so the password never appears in a command line. The token does appear there, and command lines are visible to any process in the container. This is a limitation of seaf-cli, which accepts credentials only as arguments. A token can at least be revoked on the server.

Volumes:

  • /dsc/seafile-data Seafile client data directory (sync status, etc).
  • /dsc/seafile Seafile libraries content.

Some notes

LIBRARY_ID could be library ID or library name. Library ID is a 36-character string, which is a part of URI when you open library in webUI. Library name is a name you gave to library when you created it.

Libraries will be synced in subdirectories of /dsc/seafile directory inside container. You can mount it to host directory to access files.

The subdirectory is named after the library, with whitespace replaced by underscores. A library is skipped with a warning when its name cannot be a directory of its own: an empty name, ., .., or a name containing /. Two libraries whose names would produce the same directory both get their library ID appended, so they never share one. Everything is created under the libraries directory (/dsc/seafile, or the deprecated /data when that exists); a library name can never place it elsewhere.

The container stops gracefully on docker stop: it shuts the Seafile daemon down and exits with code 0. It exits with a nonzero code and an explanatory message when the daemon fails to start or stop within its timeout, instead of waiting forever.

hostname parameter is optional, but it's recommended to set it to some unique value, it will be shown in Seafile webUI as client name (terminal-dsc in given example).

sync-data volume is optional too, but it's recommended to use it. Otherwise, sync status will be lost when container is recreated.

At the moment there is no suitable way to confirm deletion of large number of files. So, if you're going to delete a lot of files, you should set DELETE_CONFIRM_THRESHOLD to some larger value.