This repository contains the build files for creating eXist-db Docker images. Our Docker images are based on Google Cloud Platforms "Distroless" Docker Images.

1. Docker Toolbox
2. Git
3. Java 8
4. Augeas (Mac users: brew install augeas)

Pre-built eXist-db Docker images have been published on Docker Hub. You can skip to Running an eXist-db Docker Image if you just want to use the provided Docker images.

You can use the ./build.sh script which will clone or update eXist-db from GitHub into the subfolder target/exist. You must specify either the branch or tag that you wish to build the Docker image for. Example usage:

$ git clone https://github.com/evolvedbinary/docker-existdb.git

$ cd docker-existdb
$ ./build.sh eXist-4.3.1

The standard build uses a full-fat clone of eXist-db from GitHub which has been compiled. It is also possible to build a Docker Image which contains just the absolute minimum of eXist-db to run a server in Docker. If you want to build a minimal eXist-db Docker image, usage would look like:

$ git clone https://github.com/evolvedbinary/docker-existdb.git

$ cd docker-existdb
$ ./build.sh --minimal eXist-4.3.1

$ docker run -it -p 9080:8080 -p 9443:8443 evolvedbinary/exist-db:eXist-4.3.1

$ docker run -it -p 9080:8080 -p 9443:8443 evolvedbinary/exist-db:eXist-4.3.1-minimal

eXist inside the docker images is configured with the default username and password for the admin account, i.e.: username: "admin", with password: "".

If you are using this for anything serious, you should of course change the default password. The easiest way to do this, is probably to use cURL and a small amount of XQuery. For example, if you wanted to change from the default password to the password '"electricsheep"` you would run something like following from your console:

$ curl -v http://admin:@localhost:9080/exist/rest/db/?_query=sm:passwd("admin", "electricsheep")

However, for the above to be executed correctly the query part of the URL needs to be URL Encoded, and if you are running this from bash, then the brackets need to be escaped, so you would actually run:

$ curl -v http://admin:@localhost:9080/exist/rest/db/?_query=sm%3Apasswd\(%22admin%22%2C%20%22electricsheep%22\)

You can also run a Docker container that uses a non-container filesystem for storage. One of the options is to use a folder on the host machine to hold the eXist-db data directory. This can be useful if you need to share data between the Container and the Host.

WARNING: you should never write or read to the host folder whilst the container is running, otherwise you risk corrupting your eXist-db database.

For example is you wanted to keep eXist-db's data in the host folder /Users/bob/docker-exist-data/01 you would launch a container using something like:

$ docker run -it -p 9080:8080 -p 9443:8443 --volume /Users/bob/docker-exist-data/01:/exist-data evolvedbinary/exist-db:eXist-4.3.1

or if you wish to instead run the minimal eXist-db Docker image:

$ docker run -it -p 9080:8080 -p 9443:8443 --volume /Users/bob/docker-exist-data/01:/exist-data evolvedbinary/exist-db:eXist-4.3.1-minimal

NOTE: This approach adds further overhead to I/O performance.